Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present a new breakthrough in web site design and development - the Alcohol Based Usability Testing Theorem (hereafter ABUTT).

The basis of ABUTT is that usability testing can be difficult to organise but that so long as you can organise the proverbial piss up in a brewery you can still gain most of the benefits of usability testing and improve employee happiness at the same time.

How ABUTT works

First, take your team to the pub for a good old fashioned liquid lunch.

Then, take them back to the office and ask them to test the web site. With the alcohol coursing through their bloodstream their co-ordination, memory, reading and comprehension skills are all impaired. In other words, they begin to approach the level of web use skill demonstrated by the average man in the cyber-cafe.

Watch and take notes.

Well it should demonstrate Fitts’ Law if nothing else.

One of the few joys in commuting through Victoria station is the chance to admire the Dalek toilets. The what? you cry. Well, next time you’re at Victoria look at the sign above the toliets on the main concourse. There you will see four icons indicating, from left to right, that there are toliets for women, men, wheelchair users, and Daleks. And now you know why you thought the sound of the announcer’s voice was familiar.

This is the third monthly census of TMP region from the NationStates game. The Great Clans of Neandethalia (which is me) is proud to serve this noble region as their UN delegate.
August’s census | September’s census
Statistics compiled with the aid of NSEconomy .

Census highlights

• 32 member nations, (down 15 - 1 new arrival, 1 departure, 15 nations ceased to exist),
• 8 UN members (down 3).
• Most prevalent UN category is Inoffensive Centrist Democracy with 10 nations,
• Most prevalent UN category amongst UN members is Inoffensive Centrist Democracy with 3 nations.
• Total regional population is 19,811 million,
  Largest population is The Dominion of Plethasaurys (1,448 milliom),
  Smallest population is The Rogue Nation of Yorkshiremen in exile (100 million).
• Largest Trade Surplus is The Dominion of Plethasaurys ($289 billion),
  Largest Trade Deficit is The Protectorate of Cousin IT ($120 billion).

So what did I get in my box? Ten miniatures - the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader miniatures that are in every starter set plus two different stormtroopers, a rebel trooper, a rebel pilot, an Ithorian scout (that’s Hammerhead for us old timers), a Bespin guard, a Gamorean guard and a Tusken Raider.

I had seven out the ten as action figures back when I was a kid. Hmm, so I’m going round in circles. Except that these are smaller. Ever decreasing circles perhaps?

The miniatures are about 30-32mm toe to eye. This makes them as tall as many of the larger “28mm” miniatures available. However, these are much slimmer - realistic proportions rather than the chunkiness we’ve come to expect from metal miniatures. It’s not too much of a problem with the aliens and armoured figures but the ordinary humans won’t mix too well with other ranges.

From left to right: Ground Zero Games 25mm Stargrunt; Foundry Street Violence; Copplestone Castings Future Wars; Fantasy Forge Kryomek (available from Scotia-Grendel; Harlequin Doctor Who (available from Black Tree Design); Rebel Storm; Foundry Street Violence (big guy).

The miniatures are made from a rubbery plastic and spring back into shape if bent. I’m not sure whether this will make them harder or easier to convert than metal figures. Some of the poses are a little strange - The Rebel Pilot seems to be trying to “walk like an Egyptian” whilst the Rebel Trooper is leaning alarming far forwards.

The paint jobs are okay. I doubt I’ll totally repaint them but I may touch up some of the details. (The photograph above isn’t very flattering to my painting abilities - I may not be great but the flash really hsn’t helped matters. Time to buy some matt varnish perhaps?)

I think I’ll be buying some more, I’ll mostly be hunting for the common troop types - with luck the collectors will be flogging them off cheap having bought a gazillion of them to get their hands on the very rare figures.

The rules? Read them, seem okay for what they are. I doubt I’ll be using them much. Daleks vs Stormtroopers in Stargrunt II anyone?

Have you seen it? The “hate something, change something” one with the flying diesel engines and the rabbits and everything. It’s very, very strange. Every time it comes on I just find myself mesmerised - it’s like a window into some bizarre, compelling parallel universe.

Couldn’t care less about the product though…

Went up to town this afternoon. Got rained on. Bought some stuff. Didn’t buy some other stuff. This may well be a boring post.

First, things I didn’t buy

Trousers: I tried on a couple of pairs that looked nice on the rack. Here comes a rant. These were in the same shop that I bought my most recent pair of trousers, the pair I was wearing this afternoon. So why were one of pairs I tried on - from the same shop, with the same size on the label - so tight that I couldn’t even do them up? The other pair went on fine, but did not look at all good on me - designed for people with very skinny thighs.

Anything in Forbidden Planet: lovely shop, total shrine for anything Sci-Fi related but way too expensive. Apart from stuff that I can’t get anywhere else it simply doesn’t make sense to do anything but browse here. And browsing is always fun, for instance seeing the porn star action figures and the Charmed action figures mixed up together. Well, if you don’t know much about either it must be hard to tell the difference.

Yes, you really can get porn star action figures.

Things I did buy

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: Endless Nights. Yay, in paperback at last. £14.50 in Forbidden Planet, £10.99 in Borders. No contest. (Yes, now I know it’s £7.69 from Amazon.co.uk, sigh.)

By the way, anyone know whether 1602 is any good?

A starter pack for Rebel Storm. I’ve avoided the whole collectable card/miniature thing for a long time. Never bought into Magic: The Gathering, never bought into HeroClix. But recently I’ve been tempted by two products: Rebel Storm and Pirates of the Spanish Main. And today I weakened. (Oh look, I could have got it from Amazon for £10.03 instead of £14.00). More in a later post.

Also bought a Doctor Who DVD (guess what? I could have saved £3.02 if I’d bought it from Amazon), and a a three pack of horror videos (Ah, got it for a pound less than Amazon), and a GZG starship miniature that was sitting all by its own in the Orcs Nest bargain bin (Not available via Amazon, but I saved four pounds off the manufacturer’s price).

I think I should just give up on shopping and live my entire life over the Internet.