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SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc. (Hons.) Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Nicholas Vinen Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Rodney Champness, VK3UG Kevin Poulter Stan Swan SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Hannanprint, Noble Park, Victoria. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $97.50 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see the order form in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1, 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. Fax (02) 9939 2648. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended and maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip Publisher’s Letter Big challenges lie ahead for Australia As I sit down to write this Publisher’s Letter, Australia, the United States of America and Europe are facing dire challenges which will affect their peoples’ welfare far into the future. In the USA, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis has just been launched on its final mission, ending a 30year program which has sent 135 missions into space. What comes next? The answer appears to be “not very much!” The USA is a very different nation to when the US race to the Moon was launched some 50 years ago by President John F. Kennedy. Those were heady times and the USA was booming, confident and up to the challenge of beating the USSR in the cold war and in the race to the Moon. And we all know that it won both races, convincingly. The US space program was the stimulus for the vast amount of innovation in electronics and all other areas of technology. All the world has benefited, in countless ways. But today the USA is sick. It could not afford the space race as it did in 1961 and it can’t afford to maintain its shuttle program. It is now reduced to using rockets from Russia to continue its manned space activities. Its federal government debt is $14 trillion dollars, equal to its annual GDP. Many states in the USA are virtually bankrupt with California, that once gleaming edifice of technical innovation, now mired in debt, strangled with regulation and weighed down with high unemployment and the aftermath of the financial turmoil which started in 2007. The USA is still has the largest economy in the world but it is in very serious trouble. Can this dire situation be turned around and will the USA boom once again? Perhaps. As for Europe, once the cultural and intellectual engine of the western world, well it is an economic basket-case. Except for a few countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, it is weighed down with incredible amounts of debt, high unemployment and stifled with regulation by the EU. It is doubtful whether its problems can ever be solved, unless, perhaps, the various countries decide to split from the EU and take back control of their own destinies. And then there is Australia; beautiful, bountiful Australia. We truly are the “lucky country” (somewhat ironic, since Donald Horne coined that phrase intending an entirely different meaning). But we have been fortunate. Our economy is booming and literally racing along, growing strongly for the last 20 years. Australia’s terms of trade are the best they’ve ever been and our GDP/ capita is at the top of the G20 countries. In fact, except for about half a dozen small rich countries such as Qatar, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Denmark, Australia is the richest large country in terms of GDP/capita, ahead of former leaders such as USA, Canada and Sweden, and way ahead of France, Germany and the UK. To put it in simple terms, the standard of living enjoyed by the average Australian is well above that in America. Unbelievable, isn’t it? Sure, Australia is doing well because of its coal and mineral exports but it has also been doing well in so many other areas over the last two decades. On the other hand, over the last decade or so, both state and federal governments have seemingly been acting to bring it all undone. And just coincidentally, at the same time as the last US shuttle mission is on its way to the International Space Station, Australia is about to launch a so-called “carbon” tax. For the moment, as I write this editorial, the details are unknown apart from leaks over the previous few days about who might be compensated and will be able to carry on doing what they always did, with not too much incentive to change continued on page 99 siliconchip.com.au