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This article is more than 1 year old
Apple 'mulls all-you-can-eat music plan'
iTunes Unlimited: A lock-in for life?
So now we can guess why Apple has clung so tightly to DRM, which has all but disappeared from major label digital music retail in recent months. It remains a powerful bargaining chip.
The tech giant is negotiating with the music business to offer unlimited downloads from its iTunes store, the FT reports today. Money would be levied either on Apple's music players, giving the punter access to iTunes downloads for the lifetime of the device, or for a monthly or annual subscription fee, as with Rhapsody, Napster or eMusic.
It's not an unprecedented move. Nokia has invested heavily in an actuarial model [*] for its "Comes With Music" initiative - where the phone owner gets unlimited downloads "free" with the phone, and also gets to keep them. Nokia is reported as subsidising the program by as much as $80 per phone. The FT suggests Apple is only prepared to pay $20 per device. Nokia has only signed Universal Music, the world's biggest label, while Apple is reportedly trying to strike a deal for as much of its iTunes stock as it can.
It isn't clear at this stage whether the customer can keep the music once the subscription is terminated. Napster and Rhapsody's subscription services are really rental models or "radio with limited caching", whereas eMusic, because it sells DRM-free music, has no such restrictions. Nokia takes the middle ground: selling DRM music, but with the technical restrictions not preventing the phone owner keeping the music.
The music business is keen to see subscription models introduced to make up for CD sales that are falling off a cliff, and per-unit digital sales that are flattening off, leaving the business far smaller that it was. But as articulated by IFPI chairman John Kennedy here in January, the music business fears that users would abuse the service.
"You can't have a subscription model where somebody on a monthly model of say $10, [can] go on in January, download six million tracks, and leave in February," Kennedy said.
Nor is it clear how much "iTunes Unlimited" would cost. But we can guess what the music business has in mind. The FT cites "an industry executive" - and we can safely assume this executive isn't Steve Jobs - touting a survey in which the sweet spot is $7-8 a month for unlimited downloads, or a one-off payment of $100 per iPod or iPhone. But for what, exactly?
Again, it isn't clear, but keep in mind that the music business is negotiating two kinds of actuarial deals with network operators, consumer electronics manufacturers and institutions. These are:
- "Legal P2P" - unlimited file-sharing between members on the network, or between members of participating networks. File-sharing is encouraged, with royalties distributed proportionately, based on exchanges.
- "Covenant not to sue" - a one-off upfront payment to rights-holders to an institution, network or manufacturer that grants a limited licence, and permits certain forms of file-sharing to be "tolerated". Royalty distribution not based on exchanges.
Now follow the money. PlayLouder MSP and Omnifone's MusicStation are examples of the first kind of deal. Nokia's Comes With Music and the Apple "iTunes Unlimited" deal reported today fall into the second.
There are subtle distinctions between the two models, but the former has two advantages. Since the former model positively encourages flows of music, it provides an economic incentive for people to build further businesses based on flows of bits. No such incentive exists in the CN2S approach, where the rights holder simply walks off with the loot up front.
If DRM is your concern, you can see which of the two models provides an economic incentive for DRM-free music, and which doesn't. But you should be concerned about the long-term implications of such deals, too.
An 'iTunes Unlimited' deal for iPods and the online store would almost certainly face regulatory scrutiny, as it grants Apple a powerful retail monopoly on digital music distribution. It may also face legal challenges from collection agencies and the indie sector, who fear being cut out of the loop. But it also ensures there's no economic incentive for DRM to be removed - which many consider a major step back for consumers. Why? Because it appeals to the dinosaur element at the majors.
While publishers and indies have long favoured legalising (ie, licensing) P2P, and letting the bits flow, the major labels have feared surrendering control. Apple helps them out hugely here, because it allows the Big Four to strike private deals (cutting out publishers and smaller labels) and thwart licensed P2P business models where file-sharing is encouraged. So the CN2S model appeals to the anti-competitive instincts of the major labels and Apple alike, and DRM is the essential ingredient of that appeal.
Unfortunately - going by Reg comments - many of our keyboard warriors are still fighting yesterday's pigopolist, without realising how tomorrow's pigopolist will screw us. ®
[*] What's an actuarial model? It's where the party involved manages risk by taking out an insurance policy, usually in the form of an upfront payment - rather than trying to control every use of the good.


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According to the family historian, I was not to be trusted.
At age two, I had been left alone for about a minute when I was discovered sitting in my parents' bedroom with a bottle of aspirin -- cap off, bottle upended, contents strewn about. (Clever girl!)
Our children are entitled to drink and bathe in clean water. As we've read about in the news, the children of Flint, and all residents, don't have access to clean, safe drinking water.
With people still talking about the Nationwide Super Bowl ad that brought dramatic attention to the number one killer of kids, preventable injuries, we're releasing new research that reveals the scope of the problem in a place most parents assume is safe: the home. Every day, six children die from an injury in the home, and 10,000 go to the emergency department for the kinds of injuries that commonly happen in homes.
When I was about five years old, my dad traveled to Germany on business and came back to our home in the Ukraine with some wonderful treats that I had never seen or tasted in my life. One of these treats was a carton of sweet, delicious pineapple juice. It was the most delightful thing I had ever tasted, and it didn't take long to drink it all.
One of the things that inspires me to find creative and fun ways to keep kids safe every day is knowing that there's a whole world of people working together to do the exact same thing. Once you see these videos created by our fabulous partners in Brazil, you'll know what I mean.
This week, 49 children and staff from Finch Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia were taken to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning.
Among preventable injuries, drowning is the leading cause of death for children 1 – 4 years old. Learn More »

subset: commoncrawl


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Home Page Chess Life Online 2011 December Jen and Maurice Recap Rounds 6-7 (VIDEO)
Jen and Maurice Recap Rounds 6-7 (VIDEO) |
By Spectrum Studios & Macauley Peterson | |
April 22, 2011 | |
GM Maurice Ashley and CLO editor WGM Shahade recap the US Chess Champs prelims: GMs Hess, Kamsky and Shulman nab spots, Onischuk-Shankland and Foisor-Zatonskih playoffs today! You can find more video, plus the full 4+ hour live show atwww.USChessChamps.com/Video. Live commentary for Friday's playoffs will be at 3:00 PM ET (19:00 GMT):www.USChessChamps.com/Live |


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Train hits float in Texas
| SAN ANGELO, Texas
Four people were killed and 17 others injured on Thursday when a train crashed into a parade float carrying veterans and their spouses in West Texas, police and parade organizers said.
Ten of the hospitalized were in critical condition and another seven were listed as stable, Midland Police Chief Price Robinson said.
Robinson said the Union Pacific train struck an open trailer that was carrying veterans and their spouses as it was being pulled across the train tracks at around 4:30 p.m.
"It's hard to look at. It's a very tragic event, very unfortunate," Robinson said, speaking from the site of the accident.
The float was carrying veterans through Midland, Texas, to a banquet in their honor, said Sonny Cleere, an organizer of the Hunt for Heroes event in San Angelo, Texas.
The parade kicked off a weekend of events, including the banquet and a hunting expedition, to honor wounded veterans, Cleere said.
"It has been a horrible thing," he said. "The people in Midland that were hosting the banquet tonight are in a state of shock."
Authorities did not immediately release names of those injured or killed.
(Reporting by Matthew Waller; Writing by Mary Slosson; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jackie Frank)


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This article is more than 1 year old
Microsoft threatens its Most Valuable Professional
Who said you could improve our software?
What's the best way to attract a pile of threatening lawyers' letters from Microsoft? Sell pirate copies of Windows? Write a DRM-busting program?
Londoner Jamie Cansdale has just discovered a new approach. He had the temerity to make Redmond's software better.
As a hobby, Cansdale developed an add-on for Microsoft Visual Studio. TestDriven.NET allows unit test suites to be run directly from within the Microsoft IDE. Cansdale gave away this gadget on his website, and initially received the praises of Microsoft.
In fact, Microsoft was so pleased with him, it gave him a Most Valuable Professionals (MVP) award, which it says it gives to "exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who voluntarily share their high quality, real world expertise with others".
However, his cherished status did not last. In December 2005, he started getting emails from a Microsoft executive called Jason Weber. The problem was that TestDriven.NET supported the Express edition of Visual Studio. Express is the cut-down version that anyone can download for free from the Microsoft website. It is limited in various ways, and is intended only for hobbyists and students. Everyone else is supposed to shell out for the paid-for versions.
In fact, as a .NET hobbyist himself, Cansdale says he used Express to develop TestDriven.NET. Ironically, he only got access to a fancier version of Visual Studio as part of his MVP goody-bag.
But MS doesn't want you supporting Visual Studio Express with your add-ons.
Weber wrote to Cansdale that he had violated Express licence agreements: that he was accessing APIs not available to those who only had the Express version of Visual Studio, or that he had reverse engineered APIs - also forbidden.
Cansdale said from the off - and has stuck by this - that he only used APIs in the public domain, published on Microsoft's MSDN website for all to see. He invited Weber to be specific about the API/licence term that was violated.
Weber blanked him, and then began an exchange of increasingly acrimonious correspondence, which can be read on Cansdale's website here and here.
In the long sequence of emails that followed, Weber treated Cansdale with immense condescension:
"Craig Symonds is a busy Microsoft executive. We're fortunate that we could get 30 minutes with him for a conference call"; consistently evasive when asked to identify the specific legal problem, meanwhile trying to bully Cansdale to withdraw Visual Studio Express support and remove his "hack".
Cansdale took legal advice, and bravely dug in his heels.
At one point, in a splendid example of the right hand being unaware of who is getting the left hand's index finger, Cansdale got a letter presaging another MVP award only to have it hastily withdrawn the next day (find this incident the bottom of the second page of emails.)
Finally, Microsoft lost patience, and in the last few days has hit Cansdale with a flurry of lawyers' letters, also available on his website [see here and here]. Cansdale now has until 4pm Wednesday 6 June to disable the Visual Studio Express features of his product.
We await the deadline with bated breath.
Meanwhile, a quiet word in the ear of any earnest young programmer who is considering downloading a copy of Visual Studio Express and slaving deep into the night, striving hard in the Microsofty ways, in the hope one day of earning the glorious rank of MVP.
Do ya feel lucky, punk? ®


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Not being a coffee drinker [Hunter Scott] wanted a way to make tea while lurking in his workshop. Well it's not exactly rocket science, as all you need is water at the right temperature and a vessel in which the tea can be steeped. But we do commend him on not only building a nice little hot plate enclosure, but rolling a magnetic stirrer into the other side of the box.
You heard us right, the stirrer is not combined with the plate, but resides on the underside of the same PSU enclosure. The plate itself is from a unit he bought at the store and cannibalized. The light switch dimmer lets him adjust the heat it puts out. When not hot, he can flip it over and use the stir plate. This consists of a hard drive magnet attached to a PC fan. For the stirrer itself he encased a neodymium magnet in some thermoplastic. The magnetic combination works well together with a demonstration which shows it stirring water through the base of a tea-cup.


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Honkers Gentlemen's Club
Honkers is a strip club located in Tudor, Alderney, on the corner of Tinderbox Ave. and Julin Ave.
Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details are in the text which follows. |
Honkers was owned by Pegorino boss, Jimmy Pegorino, and operated by Pegorino associate Phil Bell. Honkers, as well as The Triangle Club, is a place for an activity that can be done with any of the player's friends. Some of the girls in the game also like going to the strip clubs. Honkers is significantly smaller than the Triangle Club. The barman is a guy named Tommy.
The club bears a resemblance to Satin Dolls, a strip club located in Lodi, New Jersey, which was featured in The Sopranos as The Bada Bing! strip club. The name bears similarity to the Hooters restaurant chain. The logo itself bears a significant resemblance to the "Honker Burger" logo from the "Doug" cartoon, as noted here. After Jimmy Pegorino is killed, the bar remains open, and it is not said who is the owner of it after Pegorino's death.
- Jimmy Pegorino (owner)
- Phil Bell (manager)
- Tommy (barman)
- Doorman
- Two security guards
- Candy, Susie, Cherry, Sindy, Bambi (strippers)
- The player may encounter a few glitches when visiting Honkers. If the player accepts an offer for a dance but enters the private room before the stripper, she will turn around and go back to her "rounds". the player will need to leave the club and reenter to receive the offer again. Also, a second stripper may be found wandering through the private room even during a dance, and may be observed exiting the club and walking around outside for no apparent reason.
- The private dance animations used at Honkers appear to be raunchier than those at the Triangle Club.
- As with the Triangle Club, running out of money while getting a private dance results in the player being attacked by club security.
- The bouncer outside will chase and attack the player if a weapon is discharged nearby, even if not on Honkers property. This is to be noted if Johnny Klebitz finds himself engaged in a gang war incident near the club in The Lost and Damned.
Interior of the club, GTA IV
An advertisement for the club, GTA IV
An alternative logo for the club, as seen on the Rockstar Games Social Club website.


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CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 12 This publication uses the ABS statistical definition of homelessness, operationalised for using data from the Census of Population and Housing. A summary of the definition can be found in Feature Article: Overview of the Definition of Homelessness in this publication. For more information also see:
HOMELESS OPERATIONAL GROUPS 13 ABS has developed six homeless operational groups for presenting estimates of people enumerated in the Census who were likely to have been homeless on Census Night. These groups are:
14 Detailed listings of the rules used to compile Census data for these groups are included in Feature Article: Methodology used to Calculate Homelessness Estimates in this publication. More details on how these groups relate to the definition of homelessness can be found in Information Paper - Methodology for Estimating Homelessness from the Census of Population and Housing (cat. no. 2049.0.55.001). OTHER MARGINAL HOUSING GROUPS 15 The ABS also compile estimates from Census data for specific key groups of people who may be marginally housed, but who are not classified as homeless. Those groups are:
16 The marginal housing groups are limited to the groups that can be obtained from the Census. Other marginal housing, such as housing with major structural problems or where residents are in constant threat of violence, cannot be obtained from the Census and are therefore not included. UNDER / OVER-ESTIMATION AND UNDER-ENUMERATION 17 Observing homeless people in any data collection is a challenge, and the homeless circumstance may mean that these people are not captured at all in datasets used to count people generally. Not all homeless people will be enumerated in data sets of those homeless people accessing particular services for the homeless. The 2010 ABS General Social Survey found that, of those who had had an experience of homelessness in the last ten years and who were no longer homeless at the time of interview, only 40% had sought assistance of formal services (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012d). While data on people who access services are very important in understanding people who access services, they cannot provide an estimate of the total number of homeless people at one point-in-time. Only the Census offers the opportunity to estimate the number of people who were likely to have been homeless at any one point-in-time. 18 However, there is an inherent imprecision in estimating homelessness using data from the Census of Population and Housing. The Census is not designed to classify people according to whether or not they were homeless on Census Night. Variables collected in the Census that were designed for other purposes must be interpreted as proxies for likely homelessness. The ABS methodology includes in its homelessness estimates groups of people who were enumerated in the Census and, on balance, were most likely to have been homeless on Census Night. 19 It may be tempting to overestimate homelessness in some groups to compensate for both under-enumeration and likely under-estimation for some other groups. However, such an approach would result in estimates of characteristics that did not reflect those of the homeless population, including but not limited to their geographic spread. This may result in the misdirection of policy, funds and services. And while a balance between unavoidable under-estimation and deliberate over-estimation may result, this is unlikely, particularly when there is little information on the magnitude of under-estimation. It is also very likely that the scale of any imbalance in error will be very different with each Census, destroying the capacity to monitor change over time. Recognising which groups of homeless people are under-estimated in the Census, and using supplementary data sources to understand these groups, will both better address the needs of homeless people, and allow for assessments of change over time in the level of homelessness. 20 ABS recognises that some groups of people are more likely to be under-enumerated in the Census. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are more likely to be both under-enumerated and overrepresented in the homeless population. ABS has developed strategies for each Census aimed at maximising the enumeration of Indigenous persons (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012f and 2006). 21 So called rough sleepers and people staying in supported accommodation for the homeless are also at risk of being under-enumerated in the Census. The ABS develops a homeless enumeration strategy for each Census, and works with homeless service providers to maximise the enumeration of these groups on Census Night (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012g and 2008). 22 The ABS Post Enumeration Survey (PES) is used to estimate for the under enumeration of the Australian population in the Census. However it only covers people in private dwellings at the time of the PES, and therefore will not capture homeless people staying in non-private dwellings at the time of the PES but who were missed on Census Night. Also the PES does not capture sufficient information to determine whether a person is homeless. Furthermore, the PES is a sample survey and the likelihood of including a homeless person in a private dwelling is low. For all of these reasons the PES cannot be used to estimate under-enumeration or under-coverage of homelessness estimates derived from the Census. KEY POPULATION GROUPS 23 For some key groups, Census variables provide limited opportunity to estimate those likely to be homeless. Three key groups are:
Youth 24 The ABS homeless estimates derived from the Census are likely to underestimate the extent of youth homelessness but there are no data available to determine even approximately the magnitude of the under-estimation. 25 For some youth (sometimes referred to as 12-18 years or 12-24 years) who are homeless and 'couch surfing', a usual residence may still be reported in the Census. Their homelessness is masked because their characteristics look no different to other youth who are not homeless but are simply visiting on Census Night. A usual address may be reported for 'couch surfers' either because the young person doesn't want to disclose to the people they are staying with that they are unable to go home, or the person who fills out the Census form on behalf of the young person staying with them assumes that the youth will return to their home. Homeless youth will be underestimated within the group: 'Persons staying temporarily with other households'. 26 ABS has not been able to establish any reliable way, with existing data sources, of estimating homelessness among youth staying with other households and for whom a usual address is reported in the Census. Service providers and researchers have indicated that the estimates of homeless youth derived from Census data do not concord with their knowledge about youth homelessness but there is no information to know the extent of any divergence. However, some of the views expressed about the prevalence of youth homelessness appear to reflect on the incidence of homelessness i.e. the number of youth who experience homelessness over a year will be many times the number who are homeless at any one point-in-time. For some purposes, particularly early intervention, an incidence measure may be more appropriate to inform on the scale of the issue. 27 Guided by its Homelessness Statistics Reference Group (HSRG), the ABS is continuing to undertake research and development to improve the estimation of homelessness, including youth homelessness. In particular, the ABS has been undertaking a quality study to inform the potential development of a nationally representative homeless school students survey. 28 Until a robust methodology is developed to measure the level of youth homelessness, the ABS will focus on producing transparent, consistent and repeatable estimates that can be used to monitor change over time. Because the ABS methods are transparent, users can assess whether there is any evidence to suggest that the components of homelessness that cannot yet be estimated reliably are likely to be moving differently over time to those elements that can be measured. 29 For analysis on youth homelessness from the Census see ABS publications: Discussion Paper: Methodological Review of Counting the Homeless, 2006 (cat. no. 2050.0.55.001) and Position Paper - ABS Review of Counting the Homeless Methodology, August 2011 (cat. no. 2050.0.55.002). Persons displaced due to domestic and family violence 30 The ABS recognises the difficulties in both enumerating people who are displaced from their home due to domestic and/or family violence, and in classifying correctly as either homeless or not homeless all of those who are enumerated on Census Night. Those enumerated in supported accommodation for the homeless will be measured. Some who are in boarding houses, staying temporarily with other households, in improvised dwellings or sleeping rough, or staying in other lodgings such as hotels or motels on Census Night and who report no usual address will be classified as homeless. However some will not be able to be distinguished from other people who were visitors on Census Night. 31 Some people who are displaced due to domestic and family violence may not be enumerated in the Census. Out of fear they may not have themselves recorded on any Census form for the dwelling they are staying in. For those who are reported on a Census form as being away from home on Census Night, they may be reluctant, for a number of reasons, including stigma, to report having no usual address on Census Night. Alternatively, they may have an expectation that they may be able to return to their home in the future and do not see themselves as not having a usual address. As a result they cannot be distinguished from other people who were visiting on Census Night and Census based estimates must be recognised as being an underestimate for this group. 32 The ABS have worked with its HSRG members to look to ways to both improve the enumeration of these homeless people in future Censuses as well as developing alternative sources of information such as the Personal Safety Survey. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians 33 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have been under-enumerated in the Census, and estimates of homelessness based on Census data will be an under-estimation. In the 2006 Census, the net undercount rate for Indigenous Australians was 11.5%. Some of those who were under-enumerated may have been homeless at the time of the Census. 34 Under-estimation of homelessness among those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who were enumerated in the Census may occur as, for some Indigenous people, information regarding 'usual residence' may have been provided which masks their homelessness. 35 It is debated in the literature whether the concept of 'no usual address' is appropriate for some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Morphy (2007) discusses the problems in defining a 'usual resident' and 'visitor' in an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian context, as the distinction between 'my country / not my country' is more salient than the distinction between 'resident / visitor'. This issue becomes particularly problematic for people who are highly mobile. Chamberlain and MacKenzie (2008) also discuss the relevance of 'no usual address' to the Indigenous population, as the 'usual address' question is approached with a different cultural frame of reference. They note that it is not culturally appropriate to record 'no usual address' on Census Night because 'home' is understood in a different way, particularly when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are staying with their extended family. Due to the different cultural frame of reference for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, it is widely assumed that the Western concept of 'no usual address' is under-reported by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (Chamberlain and MacKenzie, 2008). This issue will impact on Census based estimates of homelessness among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons enumerated in the Census who are classified as being in the categories of 'improvised dwellings, tents, sleepers out', or temporarily visiting friends or relatives while homeless. 36 While the increased effort in the 2011 Census to improve the enumeration of Indigenous Australians was successful, under-enumeration is still large, and the difficulties in differentiating between those who may be homeless remain. 37 In recognition of the differences in understanding of the concepts of home and homelessness in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian context, the ABS is undertaking further research about how the ABS statistical definition of homelessness may be understood in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian context. The ABS will establish a sub group of the HSRG to provide recommendations to the HSRG for the development of a definition relevant to homelessness in an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context. Any recommendations from this group will be considered by the ABS in both Census enumeration and subsequent estimation of homelessness among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. The ABS will also work to develop a culturally appropriate module on previous experiences of homelessness suitable for inclusion in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey which can be compared to estimates from the total non-Indigenous population from the 2014 General Social Survey. 38 Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander homelessness from the Census should be considered to be an underestimate. 39 For analysis on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander homelessness from the Census see the ABS publications: Discussion Paper: Methodological Review of Counting the Homeless, 2006 (cat. no. 2050.0.55.001) and Position Paper - ABS Review of Counting the Homeless Methodology, August 2011 (cat. no. 2050.0.55.002). INTERPRETATION OF THE USUAL RESIDENCE QUESTIONS IN THE CENSUS 40 The 'usual residence' or usual address variable in the Census is designed, for Census purposes, to report on: population characteristics by small area; and to report mobility i.e. of current usual address versus address one and five years ago. 41 Interpretation of Census data on 'usual address' as an approximation to homelessness without reference to other information reported in the Census is incorrect due to the way the question is worded and the intent of the question. 42 The ABS Census asks people to report a usual address. The instructions for reporting are to write in:
43 The advice, if enquired, to people completing the Census form and who move around is that a usual address is somewhere you have lived or intend to live for six months or more, otherwise writing 'none' in the usual address question is the appropriate answer. 44 There are a very wide range of reasons why a person may not have stayed, or be intending to stay, at a particular address for six months or more in a particular Census year. In the 2007-08 Survey of Income and Housing about 16% of household reference persons reported having lived at their current private dwelling address for less than one year, implying that on average, at least 250,000 people change address each month (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). 45 People will have moved from a former usual address for many reasons, for example moving for study or work, or upon retirement. Some of these movers may be temporarily accommodated in their new city or town, and at the time of the Census, cannot report a future address of the home that they have not yet rented or bought. 46 People who moved in July or August, just before the Census, might report their former home as the place they had lived for at least six months, but may consider it odd to report this old address as their 'usual' address. It is considered unlikely that people report a former usual address as their current usual address after they have permanently left that address, or left it on a long-term basis. The design of the Census 'usual address' question for reporting on mobility, and for supporting population measures, would be undermined if people did report their old usual addresses to which they would not be returning, or not returning for quite some time. By reporting 'no usual address' these people are counted in the population where they are enumerated, and counted as movers from their former usual address. 47 People moving to step up in either the jobs market or the residential property market, or people capitalising on their lifelong residential investment when they retire, may temporarily not own any property while between investments, but are unlikely to experience the forms of social exclusion that affect people who fit a more traditional view of homelessness. For example, as reported in ABC radio interviews, families moving from Queensland to Karratha to rent a slab on which to park their caravan reported that 'the money was just too good to refuse'. Such families would certainly benefit from cheaper housing options in their new area in the long term, either to rent or to add to their holdings of owned premises, but the issues for social inclusion are less likely to reflect the entrenched disadvantage (or risk of such disadvantage) that characterises the homeless population as defined by the ABS definition of homelessness, see Information Paper - A Statistical Definition of Homelessness (cat. no. 4922.0). 48 The ABS uses reporting of 'no usual address' as a starting point to identify anyone who may be homeless, and then refines this broad inclusion by analysing these people to identify, on balance, groups of people who are unlikely to be homeless. The areas of exploration of those reporting 'no usual address' but, on balance, as a group are unlikely to be homeless, include those identified as overseas students in group houses, 'grey nomads' travelling in their caravans after retirement, and a wide range of other people in visitor only households, especially those renting in holiday destinations, and sharing holiday accommodation with other families that do report a usual residence, and recently arrived migrants or residents returning to Australia who, similar to internal migration situations, have not yet had the opportunity to select their permanent home. Some of these people in these groups are clearly not staying with usual residents in a household, while others are staying in a substantial dwelling that they may own in a holiday destination but which may be a second or third home and is not their 'usual residence' in a Census year. IDENTIFICATION OF NON-PRIVATE DWELLINGS AND PRIVATE DWELLINGS 49 Both non-private dwellings (NPDs) and private dwellings may house people on Census Night who may be homeless. NPDs include places such as hotels, motels, staff quarters, boarding houses, prisons, hospitals etc. Given the different context and Census field procedures, different interpretations of Census variables are required for private dwellings and NPDs to determine whether the occupants in the dwelling are, on balance, most likely to be homeless on Census Night. 50 Non-private dwellings are initially identified by a Census Area Supervisor and confirmed as such by the owners and managers of those properties. Census collectors may also find a non-private dwelling missed by the Supervisor, and in these cases the usual owner verification is followed. All other dwellings identified as structures which are intended to have people live in them, and which are habitable on Census Night, are classified as private dwellings. However, it is possible that some private dwellings may be operated on Census Night as an illegal boarding houses. 51 The boarding house classification of NPDs by their owners appears to work reasonably well in the field. However, the classification is not designed to only capture boarding houses for the homeless - it also captures dwellings such as regional accommodation serving children from multiple schools, which need to be removed for the purposes of estimating homelessness. 52 If a private dwelling is being operated illegally on the basis of multiple room-by-room tenancies, the Area Supervisor and collector may enumerate it according to its legal and apparent basis of operation as a private dwelling and not as a boarding house. The methodology applies rules for large (apparently) unrelated group households in order to try to identify, and include as homeless accommodation, any private dwellings that may be operating as boarding houses. However, this method is limited in its precision and may overestimate as boarding houses the number of large (apparently) group households due to the limitations of the Census in capturing all relationships in the household. 53 The Census only captures the relationships in relation to the first person listed on the household form, and child relationships to person 2. Therefore, people in the household who are a couple, but neither person has a relationship to person 1, will not be reflected as a couple. Households with five or more usual residents may therefore be firstly incorrectly classified as group households, and secondly then incorrectly be assumed to be a boarding house for the homeless. When a usual resident on Census Night is temporarily absent, failure to take this into account can also lead to wrong assumptions about the nature of both the household and the dwelling. 54 By just relying on the NPD classification returned from the field for estimating these populations, it is possible that some supported accommodation dwellings and some illegal boarding houses will be misclassified as private dwellings. The methodology shows how these dwellings are treated, in particular to help ensure that people in 'group houses' are treated correctly. 55 To ensure that people staying in supported accommodation for the homeless are correctly classified, the ABS obtains lists of homeless supported accommodation to correctly flag these dwellings as homeless accommodation. ABS also supplies green stickers to homeless services, who encourage their clients to place the sticker on their Census form and then post their form back to the ABS. The ABS then flags these dwellings as being supported accommodation for the homeless. 56 Some people living specific living situations in NPDs on Census Night are not included in the definition of homelessness. While these living situations lack one or more of the key elements of 'home' identified in the definition of homelessness, the people occupying these places are not regarded as homeless. People in these living situations are not classified as homeless as:
57 The specific exclusions include:
Boarding houses 58 The definition of homelessness includes residents of boarding houses as homeless if they:
59 If it is assumed that people living in boarding houses do not have either of these elements and do not have accommodation alternatives, so they are considered homeless. 60 However, some residents of boarding houses have secure tenure and have access to space and privacy. These people would not be considered to be homeless, even if they do not have accommodation alternatives. The Census has some information which allows the ABS to establish whether a dwelling is most likely to be a boarding house. However it does not offer enough information about occupants security of tenure, or their access to space for social relations. Therefore, determining which occupants are homeless is difficult. In the absence of this information, on balance the ABS has included all people in these dwellings who are either usual residents (excluding staff) or visitors reporting no usual address, as homeless. This is likely to result in an over-estimate of people who are homeless when assessed against the ABS definition. The ABS does, however, report those in boarding houses as a separate category to aid policy and service provision. This is because in some State and Territories boarding houses are used to move people out of other forms of homelessness, such as rough sleeping or couch surfing, towards more independent, secure, long-term accommodation. 61 Although the ABS makes a significant effort to identify boarding houses, both registered and unregistered, the ABS acknowledge that there will potentially be an under-estimation of people living in boarding houses in estimates of homelessness, and an over-estimation of those living in boarding houses who are likely to be homeless according to the ABS definition. For future Censuses, the ABS will look at ways to improve the identification of boarding houses such as obtaining lists from relevant sources - for both registered and unregistered boarding houses and whether more information can be obtained about the facilities and tenures offered in registered boarding houses. Supported Accommodation for the Homeless 62 As outlined above, the ABS obtains lists of homeless supported accommodation and uses a 'green sticker strategy'. 63 However, the nature of the provision of accommodation to homeless people in need of housing support services is changing. In the lead up to the next Census, procedures will be reviewed to ensure that people in new forms of supported accommodation are correctly classified. Advice from service providers will be used about clients who are accommodated using vouchers or 'brokerage' in hotels, caravan parks etc to classify them as people in supported accommodation for the homeless. Transitional Housing Management Units 64 Long-term supported accommodation, often described as Transitional Housing Management (THM) Units, often provides some security of tenure, the dwellings are adequate (including basic kitchen facilities and a bathroom), and the household has privacy and exclusive use of those basic facilities. The THMs that meet these levels of housing would, under the ABS statistical definition of homelessness, would not be classified as homeless. However persons living in those THMs that lack one or more of these elements would be classified as homeless. 65 Unfortunately, the lists of supported accommodation that the ABS obtained for the 2006 Census did not separately identify THMs from other crisis accommodation, nor report information about the elements of homelessness. Therefore all THMs are indistinguishably included in the broader estimate of 'Persons in supported accommodation for the homeless'. For 2011, the ABS did receive information from some jurisdictions about THM but did not obtain any of the requested information about the facilities or the tenures offered. The ABS is analysing the list of information received for 2011 to consider ways in which it can better identify and classify occupants of THMs as homeless or otherwise in future Censuses. IMPUTED RECORDS 66 Census collectors are required to visit 'private' dwellings five times (at different times and on different days) to try to make contact with any people who might be staying in the dwelling on Census Night. 67 Where contact cannot be made, collectors are encouraged to speak to neighbours, or a 'credible source' about whether the dwelling was occupied on Census Night. 68 If the collector is not 'absolutely certain' that the 'private' dwelling was not occupied on Census Night, system imputation follows. 69 No imputation that affects homelessness estimation was undertaken for NPDs (e.g. boarding houses, or supported accommodation as determined by Area Supervisors to be NPDs and their classification described by the owner/manager). 70 No imputation is undertaken for 'rough sleepers', but it is undertaken for improvised dwellings. 71 For the 2006 Census, 766,000 persons were imputed to be in occupied non-contact private dwellings. 72 For about a third of the imputed people (about 275,000), people were imputed where the collector obtained information that there were some people in the dwelling on Census Night - the number and sex of the people is obtained. For these records, the collector record book information on dwelling type, structure and location is used, together with the third party reported numbers of people by sex, to find a 'donor' dwelling nearby to replicate the age, sex, usual residence (or 'place of enumeration') and registered marital status of that donor dwelling onto the imputed household in the non-contact dwelling. No other variables are imputed. 73 The remaining two-thirds (about 500,000 people) where no information could be obtained as to whether or not the dwelling was occupied on Census Night, are fully imputed based on looking for a donor record based on dwelling type, structure and location. 74 Imputed records are retained in the estimates of homelessness for the group 'Persons in supported accommodation for the homeless' (SAAP). While some SAAP properties were enumerated as NPDs in the 2006 Census, most were enumerated as private dwellings and reassigned a SAAP flag based on the lists of SAAP properties provided by jurisdictions. In the flagged properties where no contact was made, about 860 people were imputed using a credible source to confirm the occupation of the dwelling on Census Night. Another 1,110 people were imputed without a credible source. While only a third of the national rates of imputation were undertaken with a credible source, for SAAP the rate was closer to 50%. 75 For listed SAAP properties it is known that the property is not a second home, nor a holiday home or a vacant property up for either sale, demolition or renting etc. And for nearly half of the imputations a credible source is used and no more information is needed to confirm the homeless state of the people in the dwelling on Census Night. For the 1,110 or so imputed from a 'donor' record, this estimate may understate or overstate the numbers of homeless people actually in those SAAP properties on Census Night. However, the scale of any such error is not likely to be large nor biased (an estimation error on only about 6% of total SAAP accommodation on Census Night) and the inclusion of the imputed records lifts the Census estimates slightly to align broadly with Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) estimates of SAAP accommodation on Census Night, suggesting no significant overestimate. 76 Imputed records for people staying in non-contact private dwellings are excluded from the homeless estimates because there is no certainty about the nature of the dwelling occupancy on Census Night (it might be a second home, a holiday home or a vacant property up for either sale, demolition or renting etc.) and no information is available about the characteristics of the occupants to assess their likely homelessness. ESTIMATES OF PERSONS IN SUPPORTED ACCOMMODATION FOR THE HOMELESS IN 2001 77 While the list and green sticker strategies for SAAP properties were undertaken in the 2001 Census, the information was not retained. Therefore, for 2001 homelessness estimates of persons in supported accommodation for the homeless, the ABS has used data from the AIHW SAAP collection on the number of clients and accompanying children accommodated on Census Night for every State and Territory except Victoria. The Department of Human Services (Victoria) provided the ABS with a comprehensive list of their SAAP and THM properties. This was used along with the national SAAP data collection (to establish the number of women in domestic violence services) to provide an overall estimate of number of people in SAAP accommodation for Victoria in 2001. 78 However, the homelessness SAAP estimates for 2001 are only for totals and by State and Territory, and no Census demographic characteristics are available. Nor is it possible to remove overlaps between the AIHW based estimate and the other homeless operational groups which can be directly estimated using Census data, which will result in some minor over-estimation. CANADIAN NATIONAL OCCUPANCY STANDARD 79 For both the homeless operational group 'Persons living in severely crowded dwellings', and for the Marginal Housing group of other crowded dwellings just outside the definition of homelessness, the level of crowding is estimated according to the Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS). 80 The concept of crowding is based upon a comparison of the number of bedrooms in a dwelling with a series of household demographics such as the number of usual residents, their relationship to one another, their age and their sex. 81 There is no single standard or measure for housing utilisation, however the CNOS is widely used internationally and the ABS uses it for its measures of crowding. It is a suitable standard for use with Census data because all of the required variables for its calculation are available from the Census, although family coding limits its suitability in large complex family households, and where persons may be temporarily absent on Census Night. 82 The CNOS is sensitive to both household size and composition. The measure assesses the bedroom requirements of a household by specifying that:
83 Households living in dwellings where this standard cannot be met are considered to be overcrowded. Limitations in calculating the CNOS 84 There may be some under-estimation associated with the application of the CNOS to Census data. It is not possible to create a CNOS estimate of the number of extra bedrooms needed for households where any key piece of information is missing. This includes the number of persons per dwelling, age of the persons, the relationship in household, and in some cases, where at least one person (who is not the spouse of person 1) is temporarily absent on Census Night. CNOS is not able to be determined for imputed records because, for such records, key information such as the number of bedrooms is missing. In addition, there may be cases where usual residents are not recorded on the Census form due to fear by the residents that they may be found to have more residents living in the dwelling than are allowed by their lease agreement. VISITOR ONLY HOUSEHOLDS 85 For the purposes of homelessness estimation and estimating marginal housing visitor only households are those dwellings where all persons in the dwelling reported no usual address and there were no usual residents. Grey nomads 86 For the purposes of estimating homelessness and marginal housing, 'grey nomads' are defined as people in dwellings where all people in the dwelling were aged 55 years and over, none were in the labour force, they were staying in caravans, cabins or houseboats on Census Night, and reported having no usual address. The majority of these grey nomads were enumerated in holiday destinations including the northern beaches in New South Wales, and in Queensland, Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. This group does not include people who were staying with other households, such as with friends and relatives, nor those who were unemployed or were employed. Some older travellers who were travelling with their children or other younger people were not classified in this grey nomad group because not everyone in the dwelling / household was over 55 years of age. 87 In Appendix 1 the characteristics of grey nomads are contrasted with those of the group of older travellers on Census Night to show similarities between these two groups of travellers. 88 Further analysis of grey nomads can be found in Position Paper - ABS Review of Counting the Homeless Methodology, August 2011 (cat. no. 2050.0.55.002). MONETARY CUTOFFS 89 The following paragraphs include additional details on the monetary cut offs used in the homeless methodology for 2006 and 2001. Income 90 The Census collects personal income for all persons aged 15 years and over. People are asked to report the total of all their wages and salaries, government benefits, pensions, allowances and any other income they usually receive, before deductions for tax, superannuation contributions, health insurance, amounts salary sacrificed, or any other automatic deductions. People were asked to report their usual income by selecting an income range (they were not asked to report in actual dollars). The Census ranges were designed after analysing data from the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH), in which personal income was collected in actual dollar amounts. 91 Household incomes were not collected in the Census but were derived from personal income data. As it is not possible to aggregate personal income ranges, a specific dollar amount was imputed for each personal income range selected by each household member. For the Census processing, the weighted median estimates of gross weekly personal income from the Survey of Income and Housing, adjusted for inflation, were calculated for each of the reported ranges in the Census. These medians were then allocated to each person who reported an income range in the Census. 92 Individual and combined income cut offs in the homeless estimation methodology were chosen at the levels outlined in the rules for each of the homeless operational groups because, along with other characteristics of the person or household, the ABS considers this to be important evidence in determining whether households were most likely to have, on balance, accommodation alternatives. The cut offs for each Census year were set to ensure that those with high levels of income were not misclassified as homeless. 93 For individual incomes, the range boundaries are used to indicate income below the bottom of a range, where on balance, people may be unlikely to have accommodation alternatives, or to indicate that income above the top of a range may reflect accommodation alternatives. Because income is collected in ranges it is not possible to make a finer distinction within the range. 94 For the homeless operational group relating to boarding houses, the values for individual income were $600 per week in 2006 and $400 per week in 2001. This range boundary was not applied to establish an individual's homelessness, but was used to establish the proportions of the residents of an NPD that were above the threshold as a method of classifying NPDs as boarding houses for the homeless. 95 The range boundary used for the homeless operational group 'Persons in other temporary lodging' was $400 per week in 2006 and $300 per week in 2001. This boundary is applied to individuals in these dwellings, and is not used to classify the type of dwelling. 96 The only household income cut off used was $2,000 or more per week in the 2006 Census in conjunction with certain tenure types and employment status to ascertain the likelihood of the occupants being construction workers etc rather than homeless occupants of an improvised dwelling. For 2001 the household income cut off applied was $1,594 per week. Rental payments 97 Mean weekly housing costs, as measured in the 2005-06 ABS Survey of Income and Housing for households renting in the private rental market, was $223 per week. 98 No State, and no capital city recorded an average weekly rent in the private rental market that was above $300 per week. Median weekly rentals in the private rental market were lower than the means, in total and for all States and Territories, except the ACT (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007). 99 The cut off for rental payments was set above a level that could be afforded by those who were, on balance, most likely to be homeless. 100 The 2006 Census rental payments were used as the base for rental payments and then rent was adjusted to 2001 by taking into consideration the changes in the cost of living in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI showed a 13.0% change between 2001 and 2006. In the methodology the weekly rental repayment cut off was set to $265 per week in 2001 and $300 per week in 2006. Mortgage payments 101 Mortgage payments were set to a level considered to be above a level of mortgage payment that could be afforded by those who were, on balance, most likely to be homeless. 102 Analysis of the 2006 Census data identified that a number of persons who reported owning their 'improvised dwelling' with a mortgage, had mortgage repayments of $1,050 or over per month and no one in the dwelling was employed full-time (excluding persons temporarily absent). 103 Based on an analysis of the characteristics of these people, they were unlikely, on balance, to be homeless and as a result, were not included in the homeless population. It was concluded that the characteristics of this group indicated they were most likely to be persons repaying a mortgage on land they are purchasing, and who could be in an 'improvised dwelling' while building or waiting to build their home. 104 The 2006 Census was used as the base for mortgage repayments and then repayments were adjusted to 2001 by taking into consideration the changes in the cost of living in the CPI. The 'house purchase' from the CPI showed there was a 24.2% change between 2001 and 2006. In the methodology the mortgage repayment cut off for 2001 was $845 or more per month and $1,050 or more a month in 2006. RATES PER 10,000 OF THE POPULATION 105 Rates presented in this publication are presented as a rate per 10,000 of the total population. That is the number of homeless persons per 10,000 persons in the Census count of the usual resident population excluding people in external territories, at sea, or in migratory and off shore regions. The table below shows the usual resident population counts for the 2006 and 2001 Censuses that have been used as the base in the Rate tables.
106 Table 4.1 shows the rate of homelessness per 10,000 of the population for all States and Territories in 2006. The rate for the Northern Territory was 791.7 homeless persons per 10,000; higher than for the other States and Territories. For all homeless operational groups, except persons in supported accommodation for the homeless, the rates of homelessness per head of population in the Northern Territory are higher than other states and territories. The rates for the operational groups 'People in improvised dwellings , tents, sleepers out' and 'Persons living in severely crowded dwellings' show that a higher proportion of the Northern Territory population are in these situations than for other states and territories: 62.9 compared with between 1.6 and 5.2 homeless persons per 10,000 for the improvised dwelling group and 665.4 compared with between 2.4 and 15.2 for those living in severely crowded dwellings. 107 The overall difference in the rate of homelessness for the Northern Territory is therefore driven by the rate for the operational group 'Persons living in severely crowded dwellings'. Over 60% of people in this operational group identify as Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander Australians and 57% of persons in this operational group were enumerated in remote and very remote Australia. Compared to other states and territories in Australia, in 2006, the Northern Territory had a higher per capita population of Australians who were identified as Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander and more Northern Territory residents live in remote and very remote parts of Australia. Persons living in severely crowded dwellings also had a higher proportion with these characteristics. 108 A comparison of rates of homelessness by homeless operational group are not available for 2001 because data for the homeless operational group 'People in supported accommodation for the homeless' is not available from the Census (see Appendix 2 for more information). USE OF CENSUS DATA FOR ESTIMATING HOMELESSNESS Presentation of relationship information 109 In the published estimates of homelessness the ABS has not presented data on relationships between people who are homeless, such as household composition or family composition, except for persons in the homeless operational group 'Persons living in severely crowded dwellings'. Relationship information is not available for all persons who are homeless. Some people in the homeless operational group 'Persons in improvised dwellings, tents, sleepers out' are enumerated on Special Short Forms which do not collect information to the individual respondent's relationship to anyone else. Persons enumerated in NPDs on the Personal Form are not asked to provide information to establish their relationship to anyone else in the dwelling. 110 While information is collected about relationships between visitors and between visitors and other residents of private dwellings this information is not retained in Census processing therefore is not available for the operational group persons staying with other households. It is, however, possible to present relationship information for the usual residents of the dwelling the person is visiting. 111 For these reasons it is possible only to consider relationship information for those in the homeless operational group 'Persons living in severely crowded dwellings'. Items not collected in 2001 112 The data items 'Core Activity Need for Assistance' and 'Volunteering' were first collected in 2006 and are therefore not available in 2001. Level of highest educational attainment 113 The classification 'Level of Highest Educational Attainment' shows records the highest educational achievement a person has attained. In this publication, the category 'Below year 10' includes Certificate I and II and Certificate not further defined and those who report no educational attainment. Humanitarian migrants 114 The ABS identified a group of new migrants - these are people who arrived in Australia the Census year and were born overseas who report having no usual address and were enumerated in a private dwelling which was not an 'improvised dwelling, tent or sleeper out'. The vast majority of these new migrants were not considered to be homeless. However, the ABS identified a group of new migrants which are likely to be humanitarian migrants, who in the methodology are classified as homeless. 115 Humanitarian migrants are new migrants who report a country of birth which suggests they could be a recipient of a humanitarian visa. The ABS uses the top 10 countries for humanitarian settlers as published in the table 'Humanitarian Settler Arrivals by Birth Place' in the 'Immigration update' by the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC, 2004 and 2007). The countries used in the methodology are for the financial year ending in the Census year. 116 In 2006 the countries were:
117 In 2001 the countries were:
CENSUS METHODOLOGY 118 The Census of Population and Housing is the largest statistical collection undertaken by the ABS, and one of the most important. Its objective is to accurately measure the number and key characteristics of people in Australia on Census Night, and the dwellings in which they live. This provides a reliable basis for the estimation of the population of each of the State, Territory and Local Government Areas, primarily for electoral purposes and for the distribution of government funds. The Census also provides the characteristics of the Australian population and its housing within small geographic areas and for small population groups. This information supports the planning, administration, policy development and evaluation activities of governments and other users. 119 The Census is conducted by a Census collector drop-off approach, where Census collectors will deliver, to each dwelling in a clearly bounded local area, known as a Collection District (CD), materials that allow respondents to complete their form on-line or on paper. The Census collector returns to pick up the forms after Census Night unless a completed Census form, either on-line or paper, has been returned to the ABS Data Processing Centre (DPC). In addition, Special collectors are recruited where necessary to undertake Census duties in large NPDs (such as hospitals and hotels) and to enumerate people not in dwellings, such as rough sleepers (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006). History of the collection of data on homelessness in the Census of Population and Housing 120 The 1996 Census was the first Census to target Australia's homeless population using a special enumeration strategy. This strategy aimed to not only maximise the coverage of the Australian population but also to provide information from the Census to policy makers and service deliverers on the number and characteristics of homeless people. The ABS has continued to have a special enumeration strategy for the homeless population for subsequent Censuses. 121 In the 2006 Census the ABS employed special enumeration strategies for homeless people and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In the lead-up to the Census, the ABS liaised with State/Territory organisations in order to gain their assistance in correctly identifying accommodation likely to cater for the homeless. Prior to Census Night, ABS staff from Regional Offices contacted groups providing services for the homeless to identify possible sites where homeless people were likely to be located. Where possible, members of the homeless community were to be engaged to enumerate 'difficult' areas where significant numbers of homeless people were likely to spend Census Night. 122 However the ABS has a long history of collecting information relevant to identifying homeless people in the Census. In the 1933 and 1947 Censuses, a question was asked for the 'number of persons (if any) who slept out throughout the year on verandahs (not enclosed sleep-outs)'. In 1986, a dwelling structure category 'Improvised dwelling' was provided on the form for the collector to mark. This category was changed to 'Improvised home, campers out' in 1991, but there was no distinction between homeless people and those who were camping (such as on holiday). 123 Questions about the usual residence where a person usually lives provides an indication on homelessness. However, from 1976 until 1991, those who had no usual address were instructed to tick their usual address as 'this address'. They were classified as having their place of enumeration on Census as their usual address. Since then, the form has an instruction to write 'none' if a person does not have a usual address for six months or more in the Census year. 124 From 1976 to 1991, collectors were instructed to seek out all people camping or sleeping out by visiting 'any places in your Collection District (CD) on Census Night where it is likely that persons may be sleeping out, e.g. camping areas, park benches, derelict buildings etc'. They were instructed if they found such a person to issue a Household Form and help them fill it out on the spot. They were assigned to a non-private dwelling type 'campers out'. However, some collectors may not have followed this instruction if they did not believe there were people in their area, or for fear of their own safety. Prior to 1996, some Divisional Managers undertook additional measures to enumerate the homeless, such as providing refreshments. Homeless Enumeration Strategy 125 The Homeless Enumeration Strategy (HES) was developed with the aim of ensuring that everyone was enumerated on Census Night. The HES targets those homeless groups that are hard to enumerate or identify as homeless through the mainstream Census collection. 126 The groups that were the focus of the strategy were those who were rough sleeping, couch surfing or staying in supported accommodation for the homeless. People who were staying in boarding houses were enumerated under the procedures that the Census employs to count people in non-private establishments. The HES was a nation-wide initiative, covering all jurisdictions and all areas, including remote, in Australia. 127 Critical to the success of the HES was the support and engagement of service providers and their staff from a number of community sectors across Australia who worked with the ABS to successfully enumerate people experiencing homelessness. The ABS acknowledges the hard work and dedication of these people to producing a high quality count of all people in Australia. During the Census Operation 128 Collection Management Units (CMUs) worked closely with service and accommodation providers to identify locations of people experiencing homelessness and to employ staff from these organisations, where possible, to assist with the homeless count. Many people who had, or were currently experiencing homelessness, were recruited to assist with the homeless count. In 2006 the ABS employed over 250 specialist field staff to conduct the homeless count. Street count 129 A major component of implementing the strategy was the street count - ensuring that Census forms were completed for people experiencing homelessness who were sleeping rough and who might otherwise be missed by the mainstream enumeration. 130 CMUs had the flexibility to use either a mainstream Household Form to enumerate rough sleepers, or the Special Short Form. The HHF enables more data, such as family structure, to be collected. However, the SSF takes less time to complete for each person experiencing homelessness. Green Sticker and list strategies 131 The ABS engaged with providers of supported accommodation for the homeless to allow people staying in these dwellings on Census Night to be counted confidentially, that is, that they did not need to identify to the Census collector that they were homeless. Two strategies were employed: 'Green Sticker' and the list strategies. 132 'Green Stickers' were sent to organisations, SAAP providers and umbrella groups to be used on Census forms that were completed in crisis accommodation and refuges. This ensured that the householders could minimise contact with the local Census collector, and avoid identifying that they were staying in a refuge or other accommodation for the homeless. A Green Sticker was placed on the Census form, which was mailed directly to the DPC. The form was then processed confidentially and securely, and the dwelling was flagged in the data as providing supported accommodation for the homeless. A message was sent to the collector that the form had been returned by post and not to return to the dwelling to collect it. 133 The other strategy was to obtain lists of the known addresses where SAAP accommodation was provided on Census Night. These lists were obtained from government bodies, individual providers of supported accommodation for the homeless, and umbrella organisations. This information was used to correctly classify the accommodation within the DPC, bypassing the need for field staff to identify the dwelling as accommodation for the homeless. 134 Given the confidential nature of these lists, the ABS took steps to ensure the addresses were kept secure and confidential by creating a password-protected electronic deposit box to provide the addresses. Only authorised staff at the DPC were permitted to access these lists (see Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). 135 The ABS use other special strategies to target specific groups of people in the Census for example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (see Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012f) Response errors and non-response bias 136 Two potential sources of error in the Census are response errors and non-response bias. These may occur in any enumeration whether it is a full count (Census) or a sample. 137 Response errors include errors on the part of respondents. These reporting errors may arise through inappropriate wording of questions, misunderstanding of what data are required, inability or unwillingness to provide accurate information, and mistakes in answers to questions. Some of the response error will reflect people with imprecise knowledge about other residents in their dwelling nevertheless reporting on behalf of others. 138 Non-response bias arises because the persons for whom no response is available may have different characteristics in relation to homelessness and marginal housing than persons who responded in the Census. 139 Response errors and non-response bias are difficult to quantify in any collection. However, every effort is made to minimise these errors in the Census by careful design of questionnaires, intensive training and supervision of Census collectors and efficient operating procedures. Non-response bias is minimised by call-backs to those households which do not respond (see Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012g). WHAT CAN THE CENSUS POST ENUMERATION SURVEY TELL US ABOUT HOMELESSNESS ESTIMATES? 140 The quality of the Census data is further enhanced by using information collected in a post-enumeration survey (PES) to obtain estimates of the net undercount in the Census. The PES is conducted immediately following the Census. While the PES collects information representative of the vast majority of Australians, it is not designed to estimate the undercount of persons who may be homeless (as it does not enumerate those who live in special dwellings such as boarding houses, or those who are not living in private dwellings at the time of the PES). It does, however, provide information about the characteristics of people who may have been missed in the Census. It will include some people who were homeless on Census Night but were not homeless during the PES, or those who were staying in a private dwelling on Census Night such as those people staying with other households. 141 There were 6,276 people enumerated in the 2006 PES for whom a Census record was not found (ABS 2007a, Table 4.1). Some 97% of these respondents to the PES were usual residents of their PES address. Only 3% were visitors at the time of the PES. Of the 4,796 PES respondents who thought that they had been counted in the Census three weeks earlier, about three-quarters thought that they would have been counted at their PES address i.e. at home. They were not visitors to that address at either the time of the Census nor at the time of the PES. For these people with a common address given at both the Census and the PES, the reasons for them being missed during the Census are not known. Common reasons include simple error on the part of householders completing the form (e.g. assuming the person is being enumerated elsewhere because they were away from home on Census Night, or being accidentally left off the Census form). If they were in a specialist homeless services dwelling at the time of the Census and have since returned home, they would have been included in the SAAP component of homelessness in the Census dataset. If they had been in a boarding house at the time of the Census and were missed in a boarding house on Census Night, their usual address elsewhere in Australia would have meant they would need to be excluded from any homeless estimate. 142 The other 25% of this group of 4,796 PES respondents who thought they had been counted (but in fact were not) nominated another address where they thought they were enumerated in the Census. About 50% of these people (546) nominated a Census Night dwelling address that was missed by Census collectors i.e. they were not people who chose not to participate, nor were they in dwellings that the Census collectors could not make contact with. They were in fact dwellings that the Census collector simply missed and their omission from the Census enumeration has no impact on homelessness estimates. 143 While 97% of PES respondents reported their PES address as their usual address, and most of those reported that it was also their Census Night address, there may be some people enumerated in the PES who were not counted in the Census because they were temporarily absent and homeless at the time of the Census, but had returned home in the three weeks since the Census. Such circumstances may include youth or people escaping domestic violence and staying temporarily with other households on Census Night but not being recorded on the Census form for that household. 144 And as the PES does not approach non-private dwellings (nor people sleeping out) it does not generate specific undercount rates for people in those circumstances at the time of the PES. However, the final undercount estimates are weighted to account for the entire population, including those people in non-private dwellings and those who were not in dwellings. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 145 ABS publications draw extensively on information provided freely by individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated: without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905. 146 The ABS also acknowledges the contributions from homelessness services organisations and their staff, some of whom serve on the ABS' Homelessness Statistics Reference Group (HSRG), and many participated in public meetings to discuss the ABS statistical developments and gave their views in submissions. Many more provided their strong support for the enumeration of homeless people in the 2011 Census. 147 The ABS established the HSRG to advise the ABS on the development, collection, compilation, production and dissemination of robust statistics for use in analysing, understanding and reporting on homelessness in Australia. The ABS thanks all HSRG members past and present for their invaluable contributions, commitment and time in advising the ABS. The ABS particularly thanks HSRG co-chair Dr Shelley Mallett (Hanover General Manager of Research and Service Development, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Melbourne University) for her knowledge, facilitation, and dedication in her role as co-chair, and to HSRG members Professor Chris Chamberlain and Associate Professor David MacKenzie for their ground-breaking work in establishing a world first approach to the use of Census data in estimation of the homelessness population. RELATED PUBLICATIONS
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How to make Potato Gnocchi - Recipe
Gnocchi are a delicious traditional Italian dish, a great alternative to pasta. Here an easy step by step guide for the preparation of these homemade potatoes delicacies.
- Level: Medium
- Preparation time: 45 minutes
- Total time: 90 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings
Cooking Directions:
Boil the potatoes for about 30 minutes or until ready.
Peel the potatoes when still hot and mash them with the help of a potato masher.
Let cool the mashed potatoes then add the egg, the salt and the flour. Knead until you obtain an homogeneous dough.
Cut a piece of the dough and roll it on a floured surface to obtain a string thick as a finger.
Cut the string in small pieces, about half an inch of length.
Next step is to give the gnocchi a c shape. Lightly press the gnocchi on a fork, to impress the fork tines on the dough.
The amount of flour required for the gnocchi may greatly vary depending of the variety of potatoes used.
The more one kneads the potatoes the more flour they require. Try not to use too much flour or it will hide the taste of the potatoes. For better results knead by hand.
Cook about 20 of the gnocchi per time or they will stick together. Sim the gnocchi in abundant salted boiling water and remove them with a skimmer ladle when they rise to the surface. Drain well before dressing.


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My husband has developed what can only be described as a sixth sense for mushrooms. Somehow, he knows exactly when and where to look. He said it was time to go hunting. But the weather seemed too warm, and the fog hadn't set in yet. I was certain that the sun was too direct, I was convinced that the ground was too dry. I questioned him. I second-guessed him. I doubted him. Until he led me right to them.
The first chanterelles of the season. This time, I was all too happy to admit he was right.
Despite my husband's keen mushroom hunting intuition, chanterelles are still a rare treat for us. So whenever we find some, we pull out all the stops and make something very special with them. This time it was delicate ravioli.
But before I get to the recipe, here's my interview on the Lonely Gourmet in case you missed it. We chatted about my cookbook and the finer points of searing. So much fun!
Chanterelle Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter
Printable Recipe
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¾ pound chanterelles, torn into bite-size pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ounces ricotta
1 ½ ounces grated Parmegiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
1 large egg
Generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 recipe Fresh Egg Pasta dough, cut into sixths
6 ounces (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup fresh sage leaves
Heat a large, heavy sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the chanterelles and sauté for 6 to 7 minutes, or until tender. Add the garlic and sauté for another 1 to 2 minutes, or until fragrant. Let cool.
Combine the chanterelles, ricotta, Parmegiano, egg, and nutmeg in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Sheet and form just 1 or 2 pieces of the pasta dough at a time according to the recipe, sheeting it until the second-to-last narrowest setting of the rollers and using 1 teaspoon of filling per ravioli. As you work, arrange the ravioli in a single layer on lightly floured parchment-lined baking trays.
Heat a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat until very hot but not smoking. Add the butter and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 to 6 minutes, or until browned. Add the sage and a generous pinch of pepper and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute, or until the sage is crisp. Remove the pan from the heat and dip the bottom into an ice water bath for a second or two.
Meanwhile, cook the ravioli in 2 or 3 batches in a large pot of boiling, salted water, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes, or until they are al dente. When the ravioli are al dente, using a wire skimmer, transfer them from the pot to a large bowl, drizzle with a bit of the brown butter, and gently toss to coat. Arrange on individual plates, drizzle with the remaining brown butter, top with plenty of Parmegiano, and serve immediately.
Makes approximately 7 dozen 1 ½-inch ravioli, serving 6 as a main course. This was the ravioli plaque used. Speed the cooking time by using two large pots of water for boiling the ravioli. Uncooked ravioli may be frozen in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking tray and transferred to a zip-top bag when frozen solid. Ravioli keep for several weeks frozen. Add them to boiling water while still frozen—there's no need to thaw them, just increase their cooking time by a couple of minutes. Keep scraps of dough leftover from cutting ravioli to put in soup.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
3 comments:
- Irina said...
What a great interview! Excellent questions and very interesting and educational answers.
- October 20, 2011 at 6:46 PM
- Irina said...
Too bad there are no Chanrerelles in Texas to pick :(
- October 20, 2011 at 6:47 PM
- cat said...
Made these yesterday! So good, thank you for the recipe.
- October 23, 2020 at 8:26 AM


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Fulltone updates the Supa-Trem with true stereo
Los Angeles, CA (June 26, 2013) -- Fulltone announced the release of their new stereo tremolo pedal, the Supa-Trem2. Here are the details from their website:
The Supa-Trem has been an extremely successful pedal for me over the last 15 years, partly due to the TONE of the circuit, which has a very good sounding JFET amplifier at its heart.
Another key ingredient has been the Fulltone Opto-1 photocell that I designed and have made...it has the optimal resistance range, as well as the correct rise and fall times for all speeds required for a great Tremolo pedal.
A while back I started wondering what would happen if I took two completely separate Supa-Trem circuits and joined them together! Not fake-stereo like other Tremolo, Chorus, Phase, Flanger, etc pedals which simply invert the signal at the output and send it to another jack. Two identical circuits in TRUE-STEREO with two INs and two OUTs!
A bunch of emails asking "Can I get True-Stereo from MONO in?"
Yes! And both amps are still live when the ST-2 is turned OFF with no tone loss due to its hi-quality JFET buffered outputs. The ST-2 is the IDEAL device to place at the end of your chain...run cables as long as you want, use it as your amp splitter.
Then I:
Gave each channel a N.O S. Fairchild 2N5484 JFET as the very first thing your guitar hits...I just LOVE the way these feel and sound.
Gave it Tap Tempo, with speeds so slow that it takes 6+ seconds to pan between the outputs, or speeds in excess of 200bpm...
Gave it a "Phase Correlation" knob so that you can throw the outputs ANY degree IN or OUT of Phase with each other... you've never heard it, believe me, it's GREAT, with a hint of "naturally occurring" Harmonic Phase-shift as your guitar pans between the amps (with knob set full-OUT of phase) Or one massive throbbing Tremolo with no panning when knob set full IN-phase! Or then there's 12 o'clock, which is hard to describe. Again, because no one's ever heard it before...
Gave it an external Volume control with 15db of available Boost... turn down the Mix control and this pulls double-duty as one of the finest Clean boosts ever, just do some web-research on how legendary the Supa-Trem is for it's SOUND.
Gave it a 3-way Waveform switch...
Gave it a standard pure SINE wave for your everyday gigs...
True SQUARE wave... for brutally abrupt and choppy at any speed with any amount of distortion, something the most Tremolo pedals cannot do, including the old Supa-Trems...Gave it a proprietary (yours-truly crafted) "Warble" waveform that's not on ANY other tremolo. Inspired by the Leslie and vintage Univibe sounds... so organic and rollicking that you will not want to turn it off!...
I call it a Supa-Trem2.
Well it's here! Yep, I know I usually announce and take a few years, but as with the Secret Freq & True-Path ABY's, I'm not messin' around.
Steve Stevens heard it recently during a visit to the shop... he was floored. You will be too. Boxes are being powder-coated as we type, building starts late next week. Stay tuned.
For more information:


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To the Editor:
To Mayor Smith:
I'm writing on behalf of the Korean War Veterans Association of Hudson County to thank you and your staff for the efforts to move the Korean Monument located in Dennis P. Collins Park. I think that the monument is now in a better place so that all of Bayonne's citizens become aware of the sacrifice of 25 young men from Bayonne who gave their life during the Korean War.
We must never forget the sacrifice of these young warriors who went to war to save our country from the spread of communism and who enabled the rest of us veterans to continue our lives, marry, raise children, and enjoy our grandchildren until the day when we are once again reunited with our fallen comrades in the next life.
We plan to have a ceremony at the monument in the spring. Semper Fidelis.


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Today, LG finally shed some light on their two upcoming Android handsets, the Optimus One (left) and Optimus Chic (right). Both devices are full-touchscreen devices that feature a 3.2-inch 600 MHz processor, Wi-Fi b/g, a-GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, dual-band WCDMA radio (900/2100 MHz), quad-band GSM, and will run Android 2.2. The One has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED-flash and 1500 mAh battery, while the Chic sports a 5 megapixel shooter and 1250 mAh battery. Both sets should be available in Europe in the November timeframe; no pricing details were given. The devices look a little too similar to us. Check out the press release after the break and let us know what you think.
LG Optimus One and LG Optimus Chic Deliver Winning Blend of Optimal Performance, Latest in Google Mobile Technology and Stylish Design
London, Sep. 14, 2010 — LG Electronics (LG) today launched LG Optimus One and LG Optimus Chic, two smartphones from the company's Optimus series of smart devices. Powered by Android 2.2 (Froyo) and optimised for Google Mobile Services, the handsets will deliver the ultimate smartphone experience while offering easier accessibility for the growing number of consumers looking to purchase their first smartphone.
LG Optimus One and LG Optimus Chic are among the earliest smartphones to launch with Android 2.2, Froyo, the latest version of the Android platform, which allows for two to three times faster and smoother internet browsing, web-page loading, application pop-ups and multi-tasking.
The devices also enable professionals to easily sync with Outlook Calendar for improved productivity, while offering portable Wi-Fi hotspots to easily share a single 3G connection. The devices are optimised for popular Google Mobile Services including Google Voice Search™, Google Voice Actions™, Google Goggles™, Google Shopper™ and Google Maps™ with Navigation, and also offer access to Android Market with more than 80,000 applications.
LG Optimus One and LG Optimus Chic are developed based on consumer insight that first-time smartphone users have strong needs for obtaining information and handy application services. As a result, these two devices focused on offering instant information search and versatile application packages including Google Mobile Service and even quality application advising functions.
"LG is offering the gateway into the smartphone world with the LG OPTIMUS One and the LG OPTIMUS Chic that offer the distinctive benefits of smartphones, in intuitive, approachable packages," said Skott Ahn, CEO and president of LG Mobile Communications Company. "LG has a vision of helping people access information fast and easily, no matter where they are. We believe the OPTIMUS series will play a significant role in accomplishing our vision."
LG Optimus One: Building a Newer, Better Smartphone Experience
In creating the LG OPTIMUS One "with Google™", a large team of R&D experts from LG incorporated and optimised the device for the Froyo platform and Google Mobile Services.
Featuring a fun, user-friendly user interface, LG Optimus One also includes the exclusive LG App Advisor, which recommends 10 highly rated applications every two weeks.
The uniquely designed LG UI (user interface) and sleek new accessories such as carkit cradle offer users easier and more intuitive ways to enjoy all the benefits of the brand-new Froyo.
The phone also features a camera with face tracking and smile shot, a 3.2″ wide HVGA screen and a long-lasting 1500mAh capacity battery.
LG Optimus Chic: Best Smartphone for Style-Conscious Buyers
LG Optimus Chic's, curved lines provide a solid grip and the two-color variants make the smartphone as stylish as the person carrying it. LG Optimus Chic's touch-sensitive buttons complete the device's sleek and minimalist look.
LG Optimus Chic also offers a unique on-screen phone feature which allows users to remotely control the device from their PCs. Plus, via LG Air Sync, it keeps users up-to-date with its ability to wirelessly sync contacts, photos and other vital information with computer and cloud database. Compatible with DLNA™ (Digital Living Network Alliance), multimedia content can easily be shared with other DLNA certified devices such as TVs, AV systems and laptop computers.
To announce the launch of LG Optimus One and LG Optimus Chic, LG hosted a unique interactive virtual news conference from Seoul. The video of the event can be viewed at both the LG Mobile Global Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/LGMobileHQ) LG Mobile Global YouTube Page (http://www.youtube.com/LGMobileHQ).
LG Optimus One will be available in over 90 countries via 120 partners. It will arrive in most of Europe in October followed by other EMEA and Asia-Pacific countries. LG Optimus Chic will be available in Europe starting in November with other markets in Asia-Pacific to follow soon after.


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"The Jay Leno Show" airs Monday through Friday at 9 p.m. on KOB-4.
Latest Article|September 3, 2020|Free
::Making Grown Men Cry Since 1992
3 min read
When "The Jay Leno Show" premiered in primetime several weeks ago, eating up roughly a third of NBC's primetime lineup, it was generally agreed that the network was making a calculated gamble. Even if the show failed to live up to expectations, it would be markedly cheaper than producing five hour-long dramas for the same time slot. Still, most onlookers were vocally dismayed over the similarity between "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and "The Jay Leno Show." All the signature bits—from Jaywalking to Headlines—were there. Kevin Eubanks was on the sidelines joshing along from behind his guitar. The monologues featured the same mixture of light political humor and Octomom references. The celebrity interviews were typical, slow-pitch affairs. About the only notable difference was the loss of Leno's desk.Give the show some time, defenders (and the network) said. Leno just needs to settle into his new digs. But what do they think is going to change in a month or so of doing "The Jay Leno Show" that didn't change in 17 years of doing "The Tonight Show"? Here we are in the third week, and the show looks exactly the same as is did on Sept. 14. … Which is exactly the same as it looked on Jan. 14. … Which is exactly the same as it looked in 1998. On the one hand, that's not a bad thing. Fans of Leno are getting more of what they've come to expect (jokes about Bill Clinton's libido, clips from Cameron Diaz' new movie). On the other hand, we're now faced with the prospect of an NBC lineup that includes two hours' worth of "The Biggest Loser" and then three straight hours worth of celebrity chat shows (Leno, O'Brien and Fallon). It's like NBC has given up and said, If you're old, don't have cable and aren't already watching "Mad Men," these are the dregs you deserve.True, Leno has tested out a couple of new segments—one in which he races celebs in go-carts, for example—but the show just feels pale and sleepy in the glare of primetime. Other networks, which are now competing with Leno in the 7 to 10 p.m. bracket, have even banned their stars from appearing. This has left Leno with a mixed bag of regular guests and an inordinate number of "live on satellite" interviews. Even opening night guest Jerry Seinfeld dug into the host, asking, "Do your bookers realize I haven't been on the air in 11 years?" The show debuted to a respectable 18.4 million viewers. Within a week, however, that number dropped to just under 6 million. That translates to a 1.8 Nielsen share (by comparison, timeslot competitor "CSI: Miami" had a 4.3 Nielsen share). NBC has said the show will produce a big profit on anything above a 1.5. Less than a month in, the show is already hovering close to that break-even point. Still, the network maintains, "It's cheap"—which seems to be about the only defense at this point. Hey, a test pattern would be even cheaper. NBC might want to look into that.


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TechRadar Verdict
- +
Tiny form factor
- +
USB 3.0 support
- +
Improved graphics
- +
Decent performance
- +
- -
USB 3.0 driver issues
- -
No OS installed
- -
Performance could be better
Why you can trust TechRadar
When Sapphire launched the first Edge-HD mini PC back in early 2011, it claimed it was the world's smallest PC - and at under half a litre in volume, it was hard to disagree.
A year on, we now have the third generation of Edge HDs: the HD3. It forsakes the Intel power of the first two models, and is instead powered by one of AMD's latest E-450 APUs running at 1.65GHz.
When we say 'mini PC', we really mean teeny-weeny. The HD3 is roughly the size of a paperback book, but a lot thinner - War and Peace it ain't. Its curved design is very tactile, and thankfully Sapphire hasn't given it the usual glossy grand piano finish, so it won't become a fingerprint magnet.
Instead it has a more user friendly rubberised shell. Weighing in at a mere 530g, it also feels comfortable in your hand - or in your coat pocket - and there aren't many PCs you can say that about.
Business or pleasure?
Sapphire pitches the Edge HD3 at home, business and educational uses, and the machine features the 1.65GHz AMD E450. That's backed by 4GB of DDR3 memory, and certainly has enough power to handle everyday home and office chores. Just don't expect it to render large scale images or to be able to handle heavy video-editing duties.
One big advantage of Sapphire switching from the Intel Atom platform to the AMD E-450 is the integrated HD6300 graphics. This portion of the APU is much more capable than the integrated Intel solution found in those earlier iterations.
CPU encoding performance
X264 v4: Index score: Higher is better
Sapphire Edge HD3: 3.20
Zotac ZBox ID80 Plus: 3.56
CPU rendering performance
Cinebench R11.5: Index score: Higher is better
Sapphire Edge HD3: 0.63
Zotac ZBox ID80 Plus: 0.72
Memory bandwidth
SiSoft Sandra: GB/S: Higher is better
Sapphire Edge HD3: 4.27
Zotac ZBox ID80 Plus: 4.15
In this case we're not thinking so much about gaming - although it does support DX11, so you might just about get away with some undemanding casual gaming at low resolutions and settings. No, the main advantage to this graphics sub-system is the multimedia support it offers - especially 1080p video playback.
Another point in the HD3's favour is that it uses under 30W even when it's running at peak performance. It draws under 20W when idling, which is a huge reduction compared to a run-of-the-mill desktop.
A quick scout around the rear of the HD3 shows just how much the wee thing has to offer. You get VGA and HDMI outputs, a couple of USB 2.0 ports, a LAN port for the wired Gigabit Ethernet, a couple of audio ports and the aerial socket for the b/g/n Wi-Fi. You'll also find a pair of USB 3.0 ports sitting under a flap at the front of the unit.
The inclusion of two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports works well enough when there's an operating system installed, but it causes one or two niggles beforehand. The USB 3.0 drivers can only be loaded once an OS is installed, so you need to keep swapping between whatever you have the OS on, the keyboard and/ or the mouse.
The Edge HD3 is very well designed, and as long as you don't set your expectations too high, it's the ultimate space-saving PC. It still has enough grunt for everyday office jobs, and thanks to the HD6300 graphics, it can handle 1080p without missing a beat as well.
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text: For us, innovation means creating something new or improving something that already exists so we can continue to support our customers in becoming more successful. The foundation for doing this is always our products – high-quality and tailored to your requirements. In the following, we will present you with our newest products.