Christopher Manning

On November 19th 2006, I set out with a friend to buy a Wii on launch day. After futilely showing up at about five stores, we took a chance at this small electronic boutique with ten people waiting outside. After getting into line at eleventh place, I was hearing murmurs of this place only having ten Wiis. We decided to wait the hour and a half and hope for an extra Wii. Five minutes to 11:00 am, this girl that was second in line with her boyfriend decided she was hungry and went to get a bite. Much to my surprise, when the guy came out of the store to tag who would get a Wii, she wasn’t there and I got the tenth and last Wii they had.

Since then, I rarely play games on it. I finished Twilight Princess, perfected my power serve in Wii Sports Tennis, and made my share of Miis. Though, this will change a bit when World of Goo releases. Recently, after browsing the Check Mii Out Channel, I started thinking: How many different Mii designs are possible? I started counting the options, did the math, and here are the results.

Options

	Attribute	Options
1	Genders	2
2	Clothing Colors	12
3	Heights	10
4	Weights	10
5	Face Shapes	8
6	Makeup Types	12
7	Skin Colors	6
8	Hair Styles	72
9	Hair Parts	2
10	Hair Colors	8
11	Eyebrows	24
12	Eyebrow Colors	8
13	Eyebrow Vertical Steps	16
14	Eyebrow Size Steps	9
15	Eyebrow Rotation Steps	12
16	Eyebrow Horizontal Steps	13
17	Eye Types	42
18	Eye Colors	6
19	Eye Vertical Steps	19
20	Eye Size Steps	8
21	Eye Rotation Steps	8
22	Eye Horizontal Steps	13
23	Noses	12
24	Nose Vertical Steps	19
25	Nose Sizes	9
26	Lips	24
27	Lips Colors	3
28	Lips Vertical Steps	19
29	Lips Sizes	9
30	Glasses	9
31	Glasses Colors	6
32	Glasses Vertical Steps	21
33	Glasses Sizes	8
34	Mustaches	4
35	Mustache Colors	8
36	Mustache Vertical Steps	17
37	Mustache Sizes	9
38	Moles	2
39	Mole Vertical Steps	31
40	Mole Sizes	9
41	Mole Horizontal Steps	17
42	Goatee Types	4
43	Goatee Colors	8
	Total	568

Exceptions

• 1 hair style (bald) has no color or part
• 49 hair styles have no part
• 1 eyebrow style(none) has no color, vertical step, size, rotation or horizontal step
• 7 eye types have no color
• 17 lips have no color
• 1 glasses type (none) has no color, vertical step, or size
• 1 mustache type (none) has no color, vertical step, or size
• 1 mole (none) has no vertical step, size, or horizontal step
• 1 goatee type (none) has no color

Combinations

To determine the number of distinct combinations I used the formula: 568! / (43! * (568-43)!)

Result

Using Wolfram Alpha to solve 568! / (43! * (568-43)!), we can see that there are 88 vigintillion, 613 novemdecillion, 583 octodecillion, 674 septendecillion, 758 sexdecillion, 947 quindecillion, 813 quattuordecillion, 475 tredecillion, 143 duodecillion, 744 undecillion, 24 decillion, 970 nonillion, 165 octillion, 692 septillion, 788 sextillion, 754 quintillion, 421 quadrillion, 531 trillion, 161 billion, 395 million, 650 thousand and 32 Mii Combinations.

I have previously discussed my frustration with the placement of the Fn key on my Lenovo T61 laptop. When I accidentally pressed Fn+F12 (which puts the computer into hibernate) as opposed to Ctrl+F12 (to pull up Firebug) I decided enough was enough.

I looked at all of the light blue Fn keys on my keyboard and decided that I could do without them. Every function can be done in windows except for the keyboard light. Though, I can’t believe that anyone would find that useful anyway. Seriously, isn’t the screen bright enough?

I went about popping up the Fn key and thinking of the best way to suppress this key. I initially thought that I could slide a piece of paper between the key and the circuit board, but since the T61 keyboard is waterproof it was not as simple as I hoped. Instead I cut a small slit in the rubber molding for the keyboard button and slipped in a piece of paper.

Now I don’t have deal with the unexpected side effects of accidentally pressing the Fn key.

As with many early internet paradigms ‘click here’ has become the equivalent of the verbal overuse of ‘like’: an unnecessary filler before getting to the real point.

Admitting You Have a Problem

It is worth realizing that yours is not the first web site your user has seen (unless you are the operator of acoolwebsite.com). For the rest of us, telling a user what to do with a hyperlink is on par with having instructions on how to scroll and see the rest of a web page. Is it underlined? Does it react when I hover over it? Does it stand out from the rest of the text? If so, I know it’s a link and I have a pretty good clue what is going to happen if I click it. The text of a link should answer a user’s questions. “Where do I go to read more of this article” should translate to a ‘Read more’ link. “How do I get to the next page” gives us a ‘Next page’ link. “What is this web site’s privacy policy” can turn into ‘Privacy’.

Wait, What?

Click here to go to a web page about the overuse of ‘click here’
Click here to go to a web page about the overuse of ‘click here’
Click here to go to a web page about the overuse of ‘click here’
Click here to go to a web page about the overuse of ‘click here’

Obviously We Have a Problem

Search Term	Results from Google
“click here”	1,620,000,000
“click here to”	831,000,000
“click here to go”	16,800,000
“click here to go to”	7,730,000
“click here to go to a web page about the overuse of ‘click here’”	1

Solace

The overuse of ‘click here’
In conclusion, I believe using a ‘click here’ qualifier to help the user actually makes it more confusing considering how inconsistent the ‘Click here’ linking can be. Any argument for keeping it I would have to rebut with the actualization that you would have to put ‘click here’ in front of every link. Imagining a menu navigation with that much filler should clarify my point.

Look at them shoes! Where did you get those? Are they comfortable? Does it hurt your toes? Don’t you worry about stepping in something sharp? These are the questions you must be prepared to answer when walking in a pair of Vibram Fivefingers. I got them at Hanig’s Slipper Box. They are comfortable once you get used to them. No they don’t hurt your toes; actually, they feel more cozy than ever. As for glass, nails and crazy concrete, no, I don’t worry about it. The bottoms of these are tough enough. Anyway, it is easy to avoid the perils in the road once you learn to pay attention to where you are walking.

After becoming annoyed with sandals and wearing socks in general, I read this article on going barefoot and these shoes blew my mind. That was about four months ago and I still love these shoes. The first month walking in these is tough. I walk and take the CTA everywhere I go and about all of my paths are concrete streets or sidewalks. This comes a shock for someone who has been wearing padded shoes all their life. What ends up happening is you start walking a bit different. As opposed to striking the ground with my heel (which was fine before when there was about an inch of padding underneath it) to my foot landing on the middle to back outside part of my sole. In the first weeks, you get a sensory overload when you can actually feel the texture of the ground you are walking on.

I still love these shoes and cannot imagine walking anywhere without them. My feet have never received so much attention before and it is always an instant conversation topic. Now, what to do when winter rolls around? Vibram does sell a neoprene padded pair… I can’t even fathom the looks I will get then.