With the news that Australia's 100mbit (and potentially gigabit) fibre to the home is to be abolished and replaced with a cheap 25mbps service using Europe's ADSL hand-me-downs (which will be obsolete in 5 years when the deployment is finished), I've had quite a few emails from people asking just how easy it is to move abroad.
The acoustic modem has a nice retro look Word has got out that I've been spending some time in Switzerland enjoying the world-beating rate of IPv6 deployment. That is not the only reason to leave Australia of course, nor is it the only criteria for people choosing which country will give them a better deal than either of the two non-choices we had in Australia's elections. A free $20,000 for leaving Australia The first good news is that any recent graduate with a big bad ugly HECS bill is only obliged to pay this extra tax when they earn a salary from an Australian employer and file an Australian tax return. Australians who live abroad are not automatically obliged to file tax returns and are not slogged with this extra tax for having attended university. If somebody just graduated and has this hanging over their head, or if they've just started working and seen how much is being deducted on the payslip, moving abroad could make a lot of sense financially. If you have any moral qualms about this, just reflect on the fact that while the Government intimidates students with the feeling that they have to "pay" for fulfilling an education that makes them into a productive member of society, thousands of would-be athletes are given money with no obligation to repay it. The easiest route: a second passport One in four Australians has a parent born abroad. Most of those people qualify for a passport from their parent's country of birth. In some cases this also applies to people with grandparents born abroad. With the European Union now spanning 28 countries and guaranteeing the rights of any citizen from any country to live, work and study in any of the other 27 countries, a passport from any of the EU countries gives a lot of choices, including places where I have lived myself such as the UK, Ireland, France and Switzerland. Europe's citizen-friendly immigration In other words, an Australian with an Italian parent can go up to the Italian embassy in Canberra, collect an Italian passport and immediately fly into London and start working there with no bureaucratic delays, invasive and degrading medical checks or other Government interference in their life.
London's nightlife is popular for Australians. The UK started rolling out their high speed 21CN many years before Australia started the NBN. The rights also transfer automatically to all family members (spouse and children) - an Australian with a second passport is not restricted to living in Australia simply because they are married to somebody who does not have a second passport. As long as they arrive together at a European airport, they can simply show a marriage/birth certificate (in any language) and cross the border immediately, enjoy the same rights as a citizen, including work, study, healthcare and better broadband. No paperwork is necessary, no cottage industry for otherwise unemployable immigration agents, these are basic human rights for those living in Europe.
Eiffel tower: potentially part of the wireless network for France's new 4G internet, potentially two to four times the fixed-line speed planned for Australia's crippled broadband Uncle Sam wants more Australians Although it is not widely known, the US has a fast lane for immigration from Australia. The regular programs for skilled visas in the US are usually exhausted every year, whereas 10,000 "E3" class visas for Australians are never fully taken in any year. Surely it's not that easy to go to the US? It is. To qualify, an Australian only needs a university degree and a suitable job offer. Although the visa is for 2 years, it can be renewed and Australians who meet and marry an American have in various cases have gained full residence or citizenship. Anything is possible, you could even end up becoming a NASA Astronaut.
San Francisco, home to leading technology professionals and innovators from many countries. Some US cities such as Austin and Kansas City have let Google install fibre to the home, San Francisco could follow Working holiday schemes are not just for Britain Most Australians know somebody who went to London on a "working holiday" visa. These visas are not just for the UK and Australia has similar reciprocal programs with many other countries too. These rules for these schemes are rooted in the industrial age concept of workers with punch cards. Participants are typically limited to work 20 hours per week. Of particular interest for those in IT, such rules are hard to quantify for freelancers, web designers or creative people who earn their living charging fees per-project or undertaking management work without specified working hours. Although the visas are limited to 4 years, I've heard of Australians benefiting from the open borders of mainland Europe, spending 4 years in one country and then obtaining another 4 year visa for an adjacent country and travelling freely back and forth, building up a business and lifestyle of their own design. Singapore and Hong Kong Singapore and Hong Kong have become enormously popular destinations for Australians, particularly those with special skills in IT, finance, engineering and international business.
Singapore is respected as one of the cleanest and most orderly cities in Asia while embracing significant diversity in dining, shopping, leisure and lifestyle possibilities. They have recently boosted speeds to help people get a full 100MBit over fibre. A SIM card with high speed broadband charges SGD 7 (about $5) for 1 Gigabyte. These are not necessarily destinations that a graduate can easily move to. People are measured by their salary and the Government simply assumes that anybody earning a high salary is going to make a valuable contribution to society and they are given a visa in 1 or 2 weeks. Usually 3-5 years employment experience is required before making a move to one of these countries. The Not Ordinarily Resident (NOR) scheme gives some hints about the minimum salary level that ex-pats aim for, many earn significantly more with bonuses, stock programs and properly engineered tax-free offshore pension arrangements. These countries offer particularly low taxes (around 10%) and great technology. They have some rough edges too: like Europe, spouses are automatically given a visa too, but in contrast, their visa does not permit them to work unless they also work in a profession that is highly paid. Visas are issued quickly but they are also canceled very quickly if the job is terminated or the company goes bust. There have been various stories of people paying the typical 2-month deposit on an appartment in Singapore and then finding that it is forfeited when their job and visa are canceled and they have 4 weeks to leave. The bottom line is that people moving to these locations usually have a wide professional network and confidence to change their job quickly if necessary. Freestyle immigration and the visa run Not too long ago I was at a house party in Prague, Czech Republic, which is like a Paris of eastern Europe. Somebody introduced me to some Americans who I was told had similar interests in technology. They were operating an offshore web site and living very well. They had spent 10 years in Prague living on tourist visas. Authorities seemed quite happy for them to remain as long as they left every 3 months and spent 1 night abroad, a typical visa run. That could be as simple as a train journey to Vienna, Austria and an overnight stay.
Making a visa run in comfort and style with European railways. The Railjet train pictured includes free wifi, a lot cheaper than the $20 billion Tony Abbott plans to spend rolling out yesterday's technology in Australia When European countries abolished border controls, this system became much more convoluted for those who depend on the visa run. However, it remains common in many Asian and Latin American countries and many ex-pats live this way. Officials in many of these medium sized economies recognise the value of people bringing in money from offshore business (such as web sites) and using it to pay rent, food and local services. To make this effective, the ex-pats typically need to have an international private health insurance policy (high quality offshore policies can be found quickly with a search engine) and not aspire to work in a normal 9-5 job. Conclusion Young Australians might not want to just consider travel, it may even become unavoidable. The reality is, by 2020, one in three Australians will be a retired baby boomer and one way or another, whichever Government is in office will be unable to avoid taxing those of working age to pay for the health care and pension promises made to older generations. Serious expenditure on public infrastructure such as broadband or high speed rail appears to remain a pipe dream. Moving abroad, however, is just so much fun. Look at the way multinational companies make countries compete to attract their new factories and other projects: why should any individual citizen be any less demanding in choosing where they work, play and get the best value for whatever taxes they have to pay? Some people raise questions of patriotism or responsibility to the nation. Think again. The 200,000 Australians who live abroad or travel extensively make a significant contribution to Australia's international profile, engage in new trade initiatives, bring skills back to Australia and generally represent what our country is really about much better than some of those who are paid to do so.

The latest NSA revelations confirm the systematic manner in which the NSA exploits known and potentially unknown backdoors to work around cryptography. This is not surprising, I speculated briefly about the OpenBSD and Windows NSA key incidents when Snowden originally came into view. Even two days ago, a detailed piece in Wired Magazine predicted many of the things that are in today's headlines., although Schneier indicates in The Guardian he had seen some of the material before publication. What we really need to know

• Are certificate authorities compromised too, either the key material or the operational processes?
• Just how long do keys need to be to stay one step ahead? I previously discussed the 2048 v 4096 bit RSA key trade-off, but is that still sufficient?
• Does the CIA really have an alien or UFO?
• We have seen the acknowledgement of LOVEINT, but what about DEMINT, the extent to which democracy is subverted or manipulated by agenices wanting to protect their funding or gain more power?
• When Britain refused the extradition of UFO hunter/hacker Gary McKinnon in 2012, was this a politically negotiated outcome based on GCHQ "pulling their weight" for Americans? The extradition treaty between the countries is largely regarded as being heavily weighted against the interest of British citizens who are separated from their families and denied British legal aid and other protections.

If the NSA and CIA have had these capabilities, just how much did they really know before and during the financial crisis that kicked off in 2007? Could the crisis have been averted? It was already known that the Greek parliament was wired, was the NSA involved in similar shenanigans? This could well be part of the Snowden revelations that we are yet to see. In fact, it is this last issue that could be the most damaging for "US interests". If countries (or their citizens) receive such undeniable evidence of a CIA conspiracy exposed by Snowden in broad daylight and they refuse to pay debts then it could lead to major re-alignment of international politics, alliances and treaties. Syria would be just the tip of the iceberg.