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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 David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Kevin Poulter Dave Thompson 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, Warwick Farm, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page 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 Publisher’s Letter Electronics affects every area of society – why not debate it? My Publisher’s Letters are often controversial, and often trigger angry responses. Some readers send in angry emails while others go to web forums where their comments can be quite, let me just say, “unbalanced”. Some readers also attempt to curtail and sanction my editorials with the threat of refusing to buy any more SILICON CHIP magazines. Some have done just that. I accept that some readers will not agree with some of my editorials. I don’t agree with some of the editorials in my daily newspaper but if that happens I just turn the page. I don’t fire off an angry email or consider cancelling future newspaper deliveries – that would merely be “cutting off my nose to spite my face”. However, I cannot understand why the topics discussed should cause so many people to say that they should not be in the magazine at all. Why not discuss climate change, wind power, nuclear power and host of other topics in which electronics and technology have an all-pervasive effect? Surely, that is valid. A few years ago, I attended a lecture by a prominent climate scientist from the University of New South Wales, hosted by the IEEE. After the lecture there was heated comment, both in favour of and against some of the predictions by the climate scientist. Clearly, the engineers felt able and justified to question and probe the various predictions, some of which may never come to pass, in spite of being passionately promoted by the climate scientist. So if the engineers were comfortable and indeed passionate about issues such as this, why not discuss them in SILICON CHIP? So why not have an article about the possible medical effects of wind turbines and an accompanying Publisher’s Letter on the topic? Why not have a project to measure the ultrasonic signals from wind turbines? So we did. And why not discuss nuclear power? It is just another way of generating electricity and its merits and drawbacks are quite relevant to a magazine like SILICON CHIP, just as solar power is relevant. And when we published the article on Argus, surely a legitimate technical topic in SILICON CHIP (December 2014), why not have a Publisher’s Letter discussing how it could be used to fight crime, as it surely will? Will all-pervasive surveillance systems have significant privacy issues? Of course they will, just as do octocopters and much of the technology being used in unmanned vehicles, a major feature article in this month’s issue. The point is that virtually every aspect of electronics has significant effects on society and they should be discussed. Furthermore, every technical innovation will have a possibly unseen and unwelcome effect. Nobody would deny that smartphones are wonderful but they also present a vast range of unwelcome effects on individuals and society in general. These effects of electronics technology should be discussed. And where else but in one of the very few electronics magazines in the world? To try to shut down such discussion is yet another attack on free speech. We all know where that can ultimately lead. Leo Simpson ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended and maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip siliconchip.com.au