Last Week’s Top Ten Posts

You wanted 2016 Census news, old Google products and Perseid meteor shower viewing tips. Kick off your Monday by checking out the ten most popular posts from Lifehacker Australia last week:

  1. The Australian Census Website Is Down
    Tonight is Census night, on the first year that the majority of Australia is expected to complete the quadrennial count of our country’s population online. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ servers were load-tested at 150 per cent of the expected usage levels, but despite that, a number of users are still having trouble loading the page.
  2. How To Keep Your Name Off The Census Without Getting Fined
    Census night is tomorrow. This year’s Census will be the first one to retain name and address information from respondents. If you’re still against filling out the lengthy and probing survey due to privacy concerns, you may be able to get away with leaving key information out without being slapped a hefty fine. Here’s how.
  3. Here’s What To Do If You Don’t Have Your Census Code”
    This year’s Australian Census is being conducted primarily online. Last week you should have received your 12-digit Census Login number which you need to log into the online survey. But what happens if you accidentally misplaced it? Here’s what you need to know.
  4. The Australian Census ‘Deadline’ Is Actually Over A Month Away
    As you surely know by now, August 9 is Census night in Australia. If you’re going to be away tomorrow, have an unexpected internet outage or simply don’t have time to fill out the form, DON’t PANIC: the ABS is giving all Australians an unofficial deadline of September 23 to complete the survey.
  5. How To Watch The Perseid Meteor Shower Tonight In Australia
    The Perseid Meteor Shower is set to peak tonight on Friday August 12 at 11pm. It’s a bit of a difficult one to spot in Australia, however, even though this year’s Perseid shower is set to be decently spectacular. The radiant doesn’t rise very far above the horizon in the Southern hemisphere, but we’ve got all the tips you need to catch a meteor or two this week..
  6. ABS: We’re Not Going To Fine You Tonight, So Please Stop Contacting Us
    The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has updated the online Census with an assurance to all Australians — if you lost your Census materials or never received them, you’re not going to receive a fine. Instead, it suggests you chill out and try calling them tomorrow. (Who could have predicted that all those warnings about $180 daily penalties would get people worried? /Sarcasm.
  7. Pro Tablet Showdown: Surface Pro 4 Vs 12.9-Inch iPad Pro
    Apple’s iPad Pro and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 look a lot alike. Both are big tablets, both connect to slim keyboard covers and both offer a stylus for drawing and note-taking. But after spending some time with these potential laptop replacements, I found that they’re really quite different, particularly when it comes to productivity.
  8. Census 2016 Website Crash: DDoS Attack, Incompetence Or Something More Sinister?
    Last night’s Census was a debacle for Australians trying to fill the survey out online. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the website suffered repeated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. The ABS ended up pulling the plug on it. People were furious that they weren’t able to get online to submit their forms and worried about the fines they would face for not completing the Census. But there are now doubts as to whether yesterday’s Census website fail was really a result of DDoS attacks. Here are the details.
  9. IBM And The ABS Census: Let The Blame Games Begin
    In the wake of the Census debacle that happened this week, there’s been a lot of finger-pointing as to who was to blame. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has put the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and IBM, the company hosting and managing the Census website, on notice, expressing his disappointment over Tuesday’s website meltdown. Well, he’s going to be even more disappointed today as the Census website went down again last night. It’s looking more likely that IBM will be shouldering the majority of the blame for the Census disaster. Read on to find out more.
  10. 10 Old Yet Useful Google Products You Probably Forgot Existed
    Living in the shadow of Gmail, Docs and Calendar has got to be tough. But that’s just what a slew of useful Google products have been doing for years on end. We give Google’s front-running applications a lot of ink (or pixels, as it were), and the rest a passing mention in the fast-flowing river of news. Today, we pay homage to ten ageing yet functional Google products that you probably forgot all about.

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