By Wilson da SilvaCOMMUNICATIONS&nbsp;Minister Malcolm Turnbull's legislation for a mandatory data retention scheme - which would allow companies to store customer records for two years - could be a boon for us all. Seriously.Don't remember when you…

OPINION | Exploitation of that metadata bonanza needs to get personal

By Wilson da SilvaSPACE IS HIP AGAIN. Whether it's a Felix Baumgartner skydiving his way past the sound barrier – setting Twitter and YouTube on fire – or the space shuttle Endeavour pulling big crowds in the streets of Los Angeles, the final…

OPINION | Daredevils, entrepreneurs and social media make space sexy again

The godfather of neo-liberals would have been delighted with its progress, writes Wilson da Silva.THEY are unelected, privately funded and their meetings are by invitation only. Operating behind the scenes, they influence elected officials,…

OPINION | The Austrian school of thought that packs a massive political punch

WILSON da SILVA profiles the man who has devoted his life to the cause of East Timor.IT’S a hell of a way to run a resistance movement, from a suitcase. But watching Jose’ Ramos Horta pack his bags - thoughtfully, meticulously - you realise that this…

FEATURE | Diplomacy from an old suitcase

The myth is that if you leave the city, you’ll be left behind. In fact, you can have it all . . . and more. Wilson da Silva meets the techno dropouts, online to California one minute, milking the cows the next.PICTURE the scene. There are two highly…

TECHNOLOGY | Paradise download

It’s spooky. Your phone, fax, e-mail, Internet and credit card use, plus personal information in corporate databanks, means you are being shadowed as never before, writes Wilson da Silva.WE ARE being watched. Our everyday movements are noted and…

TECHNOLOGY | For their eyes only

WILSON da SILVA finds himself apologising for Australia.GENOCIDE is a word one associates with the Holocaust, with ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, or with the inter-tribal slaughter in Rwanda - not with Australia’s past. But when Sir Ronald Wilson used…

OPINION | Suddenly we’re the unlucky country

By WILSON da SILVAMonarchists who argue against the country becoming a republic are giving comfort to white racists in Australia, the author and Australian Republican Movement founder Tom Keneally told a gathering in Sydney at the weekend.&nbsp;“I…

NEWS | Keneally links racism to monarchy

Some of the oldest cons have found a new medium to reach their victims - and it’s harder than ever to catch the perpetrators, WILSON da SILVA reports.IT HAD to happen. The carpetbaggers have invaded the Net. Cyberspace, it would seem, is now crawling…

TECHNOLOGY | Scammed!

The microchip that spawned the personal computer revolution is 25 years old next week. And the revolution is not over yet, WILSON da SILVA forecasts.THE world changed for- ever on November 15, 1971. And hardly anyone noticed. Watergate was still…

TECHNOLOGY | The history of the chip

The key to human survival in the information age may be a capacity to filter out the overload which can shock us even to death. WILSON da SILVA reports.CELLPHONES ringing in cafes. Faxes in the home. Floppy disks arriving in the mail. Catalogues,…

TECHNOLOGY | Dying for information

 MOBILE PHONES: A SPECIAL REPORTBy WILSON da SILVAHANG on to your socks: the future of personal communications is here. It can be found at a Paddo cafe on a rainy day, on the sand at Bondi Beach, or on the 9.12 am train to Central Station.&nbsp;It is…

TECHNOLOGY | Make way for the future, it’s here now

By WILSON da SILVA&nbsp;BEING hacked is not a pleasant feeling. Sort of like being burgled - then being charged for breaking and entering. No-one really believes you’re innocent.It might not be your fault. You might have an obscure enough password.…

TECHNOLOGY | Hacked - and hating it

By WILSON da SILVAANTHROPOLOGIST Alberto Gomes is interested in Goa, the former Portuguese colonial enclave that is now part of India. He visits villages, catalogues idle conversation and observes how the community interacts.Yet he never leaves his…

TECHNOLOGY | Virtual visitor on the Goa

By WILSON da SILVAAUSTRALIA has hit the technology, big time. And most of us didn’t even notice it. According to the most detailed snapshot of the industry yet, prepared by the Bureau of Industry Economics and to be released in the next few weeks,…

TECHNOLOGY | We’re in top gear on the infobahn

Future world conflicts will not be resolved with military hardware and physical hardware and physical might. As WILSON da SILVA reports the victors will be those who best infiltrate the computer systems of their foes.THE UNITED STATES is at war. So…

TECHNOLOGY | Fighting the invisible enemy

By WILSON da SILVAAT THE University of Melbourne medical faculty, students are pumping some very nasty drugs into mice. Again and again, 16 white mice are injected with cocaine, amphetamines, strychnine and barbiturates.&nbsp;They leap around wildly,…

TECHNOLOGY | Program that kills - again and again

WILSON da SILVAColin Watt used to command bomber missions into Germany under the cover of night, dodging puffs of anti-aircraft shells and smelling the acrid odour from fires raging on the ground below.&nbsp;"The worst were the searchlights. If you…

NEWS | Old flyboys scramble to historic air show

WILSON da SILVAStudents of the University of NSW's Kensington Colleges yesterday denied allegations of widespread unruliness, but a vice-chancellor's report on an incident in April describes them as "absolutely drunk and completely beyond…

NEWS | 'Out of control' students deny wild behaviour

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALDWILSON da SILVAThe chief executive of the University of NSW’s Kensington Colleges, Dr Bruce Avis, has resigned after finding his position “untenable” because of the unruliness of resident students, whose behaviour one source…