Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 May 4

= May 4 =

Interpuncts or commas in separating genres in Wikipedia?
The question is basically as simple as that. Which of the options should be used? Couldn't find any information elsewhere. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nena000000 (talk • contribs) 11:41, 4 May 2016‎ (UTC)


 * Separating genres? What genres?  Can you give us an example of the issue you're grappling with?  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]


 * You should be asking this at WP:Help Desk not here. Also have you read the relevant Manual of Style for whatever you are separating? Nil Einne (talk) 13:20, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Your contrib history shows you editing infoboxes of musical artists. The help for the template Template:Infobox musical artist says "Genres should be separated by using commas or flatlist" with more explaination there for when to use each and how to use flatlist. BTW please remember to sign your contributions to discussion pages using four tildes ~ . Knowing who you're talking to and when they commented can make things easier. For example, in this case checking your contribution history provided a big clue what you were referring to. Nil Einne (talk) 13:37, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Typing in Kanji
Hi guys, I use a Linux based computer and I was wondering if anyone knew a program that would allow me to type in kana and kanji, seeing as I can't type non roman characters on my computer's keyboard. This isn't a problem with English and German, bu it is with Japanese. Please help!

Thanks in advance, Will2022 (talk 15:24, 4 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Don't know the answer but the the Computing reference desk might be a better place for the question. Dismas |(talk) 16:21, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Links: Online Japanese keyboard, How to type Japanese text in browsers, Microsoft Word documents and e-mails. Wikipedia has an article about Japanese input methods. AllBestFaith (talk) 16:30, 4 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Even if you don't use Arch, their wiki is often a good place to start for penguinistas. This page outlines the basic options on Arch, which are Fcitx, IBus and uim. I expect these would also apply to your distro. HenryFlower 18:14, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Driver's license expiration
I recently learned that normal Switzerland driver's licenses are issued for life (no expiration date). Coming from an American background, where I always had to renew the license every several years, this was surprising. Are there other jurisdictions that issue driver's licenses for life? Is that a common thing? Dragons flight (talk) 15:29, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * In the U.S., Arizona comes the closest: it does not have fixed-term expiration dates, but instead licenses expire when a person turns 65, and thereafter every 5 years: . That means that a 16-year old getting their first license in Arizona would not see it expire for 49 years.  -- Jayron 32 15:34, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * My father's French driver's licence is 45 years old and still valid. No expiration date written on it.--Lgriot (talk) 15:43, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The French A (motorcycles) and B (cars) driver's license has no expiration date. The French C (lorry) and D (bus) driver's license however, expires after 5 years, just like all European C and D driver's licenses. Akseli9 (talk) 19:03, 4 May 2016 (UTC)


 * UK licences are valid until the age of 70: after that they have to be renewed every three years, subject to the driver's health still be satisfactory. However, the actual physical licence now has to be updated every ten years as it includes a photo, and that must be replaced with an up to date one. However, drivers who still have the older licences without photos can keep them until they are 70 (unless they move house). 81.132.106.10 (talk) 17:25, 4 May 2016 (UTC)


 * For about 13 years, NZ had the paper licence with an expiry date generally over 50 years later (I think it was your 71 birthday?) . However the modern photo card licence was introduced in 1999 and this needs to be renewed every 10 years until your 75th birthday after which you need to renew more frequently and with additional requirements . Some time after the introduction, paper licences were all expired regardless of nomimal expiration date.  Note with reference to the IP's comment above I assume we're only talking about simple expiration of licence. AFAIK, once you've passed any provisional periods and excluding vision testing, most places including most states in the US do not new testing or stuff like that for renewals of simple car licences if you keep up your licence renewals unless you have some special circumstance or in the case of old age. Renewal is mostly about updating the licence perhaps with a new photo and perhaps paying a new fee, and sometimes making sure you keep it updated; or maybe just about making sure records are updated. It also provides a means to remove the licence from anyone disqualified/forbidden when this for some reason didn't happen when the disqualification happened.  Whether you count the physical licence as expired or invalid seems to mostly a matter of semantics. In other words, if you need to renew or update your licence every 10 years and you can't drive if you haven't done so, it's resonable to say it expired as this is what counts as expired in a lot of jurisdictions. Particularly since it's possible some places don't or won't have physical licences in the future but the "virtual" licence will still be expired/invalidated and with renewal/updating required in the same fashion. There's perhaps a valid distinction between jurisdictions which require continual renewal (probably with the assumption renewal means you're driving even though that isn't always the case) and those that don't (i.e. you can renew it at any time without having to resit a test although possibly having to pay the fees for renewal from when it was last valid). But this doesn't seem to be about expiration per se. Legacy licences which are still valid and nominally are going to remain valid until a certain age or moving address could legitimately be said to have a long expiration date.  Nil Einne (talk) 18:46, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * My German driver's license does not have a general expiration date (it will be valid for driving cars forever). However, for some types of small trucks, it is valid only until my 50th birthday. (This has already been helpful to me when renting cars in the US, when the rental agency clerks needed an expiration date because their software was unaware of the possibility that drivers's licenses do not expire). The license is not typically used as identification in Germany; for that, we have national ID cards that expiry every ten years or so. —Kusma (t·c) 19:22, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

FICO score
Via my credit card company I receive a monthly report of my FICO credit score. I'm wondering what might explain a very slight dip (2 points) that is seen in one month but recovered in the very next month--despite the fact that (according to another report) in this entire period I received no credit alerts. 50.1.139.239 (talk) 17:22, 4 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Different credit reporting agencies have slightly different ways of calculating your credit score. So, it's not quite comparing apples to apples when going from one to the other.  According to Credit score in the United States, "Because a consumer's credit file may contain different information at each of the bureaus, FICO scores can vary depending on which bureau provides the information to FICO to generate the score."  Dismas |(talk) 17:30, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * But do credit card companies normally send scores from different agencies from month to month? I would have thought they normally send a score derived from the same company unless they switch in which case they'll probably tell you or at least your score should stay consistent after the change baring other causes of change. (Or the company reversing the change perhaps due to complaints.) Nil Einne (talk) 15:31, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The OP didn't say that the two reports came from their credit card company. They said they got one score from the CC company and then compared it to a third party. To possibly answer your question, not that I've seen. Dismas |(talk) 19:41, 5 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Are you sure you read the question correctly? It sounds to me like the OP said they get monthly reports from their credit card company and there was a dip from one month to the next which then went up again in the next month; all in these reports from their credit card company. (Note that there need to be at least 3 reports for them to observe this.) The third party report was just used to check whether there were any credit alerts, which there weren't. Far as I read, the OP never mentioned any score from this third party report. I guess it's a relevant point that this third party report may not have any credit alerts, but whatever agency their credit card company is using may have them, but that didn't seem to be what you were referring to. Nil Einne (talk) 20:31, 5 May 2016 (UTC)


 * The section in the US Credit score article detailing the FICO makeup might provide some clues. Given the information provided, I'd guess that the "debt burden" portion of the score might be coming into effect.  I believe debt burden includes "utilization" as described in the ensuing paragraph. If you made a large purchase that consumed a greater percentage of your available credit, that might affect the score negatively, even if the balance was paid off when billed.  Unfortunately, the actual calculations going into a FICO score not well documented.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  19:59, 5 May 2016 (UTC)