Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 May 17

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May 17

Canadian pedia?

Is this the Canadian Wikipedia? http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portada It is in French? There's no Canadian pedia in English? Is this French much different from the native French? --117.204.84.55 (talk) 07:48, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

It's not like any French I've ever read! You might like to read our article on Catalan language. Our friends in Canada read either the standard English or the standard French Wikipedias. Dbfirs 08:27, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

That's Catalan Wikipedia, not Canadian. The various Wikipedias are distinguished by language, not nationality. Thus, this Wikipedia, the English-language one, is for anyone who speaks English anywhere in the world. There is no Canadian language, hence no Canadian Wikipedia. (French-language Wikipedia is found here: http://fr.wikipedia.org )—D. Monack ^talk 09:24, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

There is a Kannada language edition of Wikipedia. Warofdreams talk 14:03, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

LOL. That's a good one. Anyway, if the OP is looking for a Canadian encyclopedia, maybe they can try The Canadian Encyclopedia which is also a free online encyclopedia available both in English and French. --99.244.91.182 (talk) 03:08, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Why isn't there a Swiss Wikipedia either? --84.61.146.104 (talk) 16:13, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

See Languages of Switzerland. The project does not cater specifically for nationalists. Dbfirs 19:42, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

With a few exceptions, of course. LANTZY^TALK 01:28, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Oops, yes, I was wrong there, wasn't I? There are exceptions! Dbfirs 15:38, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Is ch.wikipedia.org the Swiss Wikipedia? --84.61.146.104 (talk) 07:47, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

ch.wikipedia.org is the Chamorro language edition of Wikipedia. As it was noted above, there isn't a Swiss Wikipedia because there isn't Swiss language. --Магьосник (talk) 17:00, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

360 => laptop

Disclaimer: I know computers, I don't know AV. Wasn't sure whether this was appropriate for the computing desk, which is why I'm posting here. Is there any way to get my Xbox 360 to display in HD on my laptop screen? The laptop doesn't have any video inputs, although it's got the usual USB/Firewire/eSATA complement. I'm in the UK, if that's relevant for video formats or anything. Thanks 131.111.248.99 (talk) 09:41, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

If it has no inputs, then it's not possible without some major hacking of the hardware. You COULD probably pick up an HDMI to Firewire converter and use the 360 as a video capture input, but it's not likely to be even halfway decent quality. Buffered Input Output 15:35, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Buffered Input Output. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:54, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Also, many laptops have rather small screens, so are unlikely to support full HD (1920×1080) resolution. What's the max resolution on your screen ? StuRat (talk) 22:12, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

qualifications

hi, i'm currently in 12th grade, so i'm gonna finish high school next year. i just wanted to know what are the qualifications and areas of expertise and subjects required for an architect. also the same question goes for a game designer

thanx —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.197.248.168 (talk) 13:21, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Take a look at both the admission and courses of the degree you want to study.--Mr.K. (talk) 15:22, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

For architecture, you could also look through the American Institute of Architects (AIA) site here. Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:27, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Many schools have architecture programs, you may also want to major in a related discipline like design or civil engineering; architecture is basically a cross between those two. As far as game design goes, you'd need to decide which part of game design you want to go into. The person that writes code has a very different job than the one that makes the artwork. SteveBaker works in the field, I am sure he will be able to help you in that realm. --Jayron32 15:35, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

For game designer, gamecareerguide may help, but be warned that it's owned by CMP, so I assume a major point of gamecareerguide is to try to convince you to pay for Game Developers Conference passes. As Mr.K. says, you should hit up the few schools that have a game design track for information. However, know that 99% or more of game designers don't have a degree in game design. As for the areas of expertise: Math helps a lot in order to be able to design systems that make sense. It's an entertainment field, so courses in writing, plot structure, etc., help. Some designers lean heavily toward the "writing" side of the job, creating the plot and dialogue. Other designers are "level designers", where they use 3D software like 3D Studio Max or Autodesk Maya to actually create the game's levels, and then set up all the trigger points for things like elevators, puzzles, and traps; and, usually, utilize some scripting system or a language like Lua to actually write code to tell the elevators, puzzles, and traps exactly what to do. (I think that if you were to count all game designers in the industry, most would call themselves level designers; though the job is varied; at some companies it's a 3D modeling artist who creates the world in Max or Maya, working with the designer to find out how to model the level; whereas at other companies the level designer does everything.) Usually it's a more experienced designer who does the "system" work, where the designer writes (and then tweaks endlessly after playing the first few drafts) the systems of hit points, weapon damage, how often the player should find a new item in general, how many milliseconds should elapse before a powerup times out, and the entire feel of the core gameplay (movement and combat, usually). A lot of video game playing is useful. I recommend googling "game design podcasts" and find some designers you like to listen to. Many, many video game designers started out with QA jobs, playing the same few levels endlessly to find all the bugs, and eventually they get a chance to be a junior level designer; I think this is a pretty tedious way to enter the industry as a designer, but it's how many designers do get their positions. In the first-person shooter area, it's more typical, I think, for the video game developer companies like Gearbox Software and id Software to find the very best of the popular mods for the popular games and hire those guys as level designers. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:52, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

While I agree that a lot of Game Designers don't have a degree (I think it's a lot less than 99%...maybe 60% at most) - those are the ones that have been in the business for a while and who have shifted over from another discipline. But the games business is changing and professionalizing at a steep rate. NEW game designers, being recruited into the business as their first jobs in the industry will find it next to impossible to break into the field without a degree. Don't take my word for it - look at any game company web site, almost all of them have a "JOBS" section - and I don't see any that don't require a degree for every job track except QA. SteveBaker (talk) 02:38, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Oh, and I wanted to emphasize: The job "game designer" differs a lot at every company. If you were to get a degree in this unusual field and walk into a video game developer with it, they won't necessarily be impressed, because the work varies so much, and the work you completed for your degree may not apply to the particular role they need to fill. As I mentioned above, some designers are closer to programmers, others are closer to 3D modelers, others are closer to writers, and others sit and tweak game systems all day; it is rare to find a versatile designer who is comfortable doing all these disparate things, so large developers have a mix. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:02, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

An acquaintance of mine who is a self-employed game designer studied math and computer science at MIT. Game theory might be worth studying, for example. My acquaintance is really strong on algorithms, though he has enough of a command of web design to develop relatively user friendly prototypes making use of his algorithms. I think that companies that buy his concepts or his services use teams of web designers to further polish the user interface for his games. Marco polo (talk) 20:00, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

For questions like this the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Outlook Handbook is a good start, although they don't have a separate listing for game designers, only computer programmers. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:02, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I work in the games industry. There is a very specific job title called "Game Designer" - which is someone who figures out things like what levels there should be - or what puzzles there are - how the 'story arc' plays out - and lays out the design of the system in rather broad-brush terms. Other people who "design video games" are not "Game Designers" - but Artists, programmers, sound designers, musicians, voice actors, motion capture actors, etc. If you specifically want to be a "Game Designer" then there are a few colleges who specialize in game design and who offer degrees in the subject. "Full Sail University" in Florida is one particularly renowned one. Another route is to start off as a game Artist or perhaps even (if you're desperate) a Play Tester/Quality-assurance guy. It's generally possible to progress from one of those jobs into game design after a few years. A few programmers also decide to become designers - but that might entail a pay cut! If you can possibly manage to get an internship at a game company over your summer vacation - that would be a huge benefit - both for your resume - and because it would help you to understand whether this is really what you want to do.

If you had in mind a more general career in the game business - then there are a wide range of entry routes. One is to take a specialized degree in games - or possibly "Arts and Technology" or something. That would get you into the Art track, the Design track or any of the others for that matter. Programmers might be better off taking a hard computer-science degree - but a specialised degree of the sort that Full Sail offer would be OK too. A very few artists who are able to demonstrate amazing work in their portfolio's can get jobs without a degree - but it's tough to get that level of capability (and demonstrate that you understand things like 'work flow') without somehow getting to work in the games business first.

The easiest track to get into is Play Tester/Quality Assurance. In many cases, you can walk into a job like that straight out of high school...however, it's by far the lowest paid job in the games business (often at minimum wage) and people tend not to last long in it because "playing video games all day" turns out to be spectacularly less fun than it sounds when you're playing the exact same game 8 hours a day for 3 years...with it crashing and failing for a good portion of that time! Although a very few QA folks manage to break out into Art, Design or Programming and some of them end up running the QA department from which they can progress to becoming managers - most of them simply go off and do something else.

A very few people (these days) make it into the business by making their own game in the privacy of their own homes and breaking into the business that way. At one time, that was perhaps the commonest route - but these days, making a credible game without the support of a big publisher is virtually impossible. You'll need a day job first!

In general, the highest paid workers are the programmers, followed by art and design, then play-testing. A good programmer can earn $120k to $150k at the peak of his/her career and if you get lucky and work on a game that turns out to be a RockBand, GTA-IV or HALO-3 quality blockbuster, you can pick up royalty checks that could keep you in luxury for life! (Sadly, you don't usually get that lucky because only about one in 35 games ever turns a profit!) SteveBaker (talk) 02:32, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

For both those professions, the real qualification is having a fertile but calm mind. Degrees don't mean a thing in the end, should you lack imagination and vision. Vranak (talk) 14:58, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

You don't work in the games business do you? I'm pretty sure you wouldn't say that if you worked in the business! The vast percentage of the tasks required in making a modern game require little "imagination and vision". Raw, hard, technical skill and an ability to focus on the task for long periods is what we mostly need. Consider a game like GTA IV: Somewhere, an army of artists were taking photographs of real buildings, real cars, real mailboxes, trash cans and streetlamps ("reference imagery") and bashing out 3D models of them using 3DStudio or Maya by rote according to strict 'look and feel' guidelines set out by someone else. That 'someone else' had street plans drawn up by designers and a large Excel spreadsheet where he's tracking the status of assets against schedule. Very little imagination or vision is required for that - just an ability to make efficient art in huge volume, on time and in budget. Being a programmer in the games industry requires an almost identical skillset to someone who programs accountancy systems (although our tolerance for people who come to work in Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sandals is higher!). Obviously there are jobs where those traits are valuable - but they are generally in the more senior staff - lead engineers, art directors, producers, etc. For entry-level jobs, the ability to get the work done quickly, accurately and to specification is more important. Yes, you DO need a degree to get a decent job in the games business. Again, you don't have to believe me - just go to pretty much any game company web site - click on the "Jobs" link and look. You'll immediately see that "Bachelor's degree in XXX" comes up in almost every case...and in the cases where it doesn't, I can tell you that a candidate without a degree will almost never make it into a non-QA position unless they have a ton of professional game development experience already - and that's a chicken-and-egg situation. Heck, even our minimum-wage interns are required to be in their third year of a degree program to get to work here! SteveBaker (talk) 14:28, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Lost recorded delivery letter UK - how to complain/enquire by email?

Early last week I went to the post office and sent a first class recorded delivery letter. The destination address was less than a mile away - I expected it to arrive the next morning. Now six days later, it has still not arrived, according to the Royal Mail's online tracking service, which keeps saying "We have your item...blah blah blah...is being progressed through our networks for delivery".

I've looked through the Royal Mails website and I cannot find how to complain/enquire by email. Does anyone know how to do this please? I've found a telephone number, but I do not want to pay what is probably a premium rate and/or be stuck in a queue for an hour. By coincidence, someone else claims to have repeatedly posted letters to me which I've never got. Thanks 78.147.140.229 (talk) 15:17, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

This page has a link saying "Send Royal Mail Customer Services an email" - linking to this page. Have you tried that? Otherwise, perhaps you should go back to the post office and start raising a complaint there. Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:45, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I followed your link and it says I have to wait three weeks! before I can complain (or even enquire?) and did not give any means of sending an email. Bad service. 78.147.140.229 (talk) 16:07, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Did you get a receipt when you sent the letter? If so, does it contain instructions on how to complain? You probably want to try and find a way to complain directly to the Recorded Delivery people rather than a general customer service e-mail address that could take a while to get to the right place (ironic, huh?). --Tango (talk) 15:56, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes. No. Its a flimsy bit of paper like a supermarket till reciept. It only tells you how to look online to check if its been delivered, as described above. 78.147.140.229 (talk) 16:07, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

They lost it. Royal Mail lose hundreds of items of post every day. You can guess what happens to them. It's not a big deal for them. When you complain they will just tell you to fill out a compensation claim. You should always make a claim because if they get a disproportionate number of complaints about a particular postal round they will keep an eye on that particular postman.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 16:00, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Its disgraceful that you cannot even trust recorded delivery to get a letter there, and that to be certain of delivery you have to go to the address in person, as I did, which defeats the whole purpose of having a postal system. And then you are prevented from complaining about it, which seems to be a common trick of shadey organisations in my experience. It was lucky I was paranoid enough to check that it had actually been delivered rather than just assuming it would be. 78.147.140.229 (talk) 16:17, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

It doesn't defeat the whole purpose, just a small portion of it. The purpose is to make it cheaper and more convenient to get things from one place to another. That purpose still works at a success rate of a little bit under 100%. We take risks every day and sending something by post is a risk as well. If the risk of it not getting there is high enough then it might be worth you delivering it yourself (roughly speaking, you need to multiply the chance of it not getting there by the cost of it not getting there and see if that number is smaller than the cost of you delivering it by hand), but in most cases it isn't. Royal Mail is very good at getting letters to the right place, you have just been unlucky. --Tango (talk) 16:29, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the sermon. 78.147.140.229 (talk) 17:04, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

It was leftover change from your soapbox. Vimescarrot (talk) 19:58, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I recall reading once upon a time how London Diamond Merchants preferred sending uninsured precious gems through the ordinary post on the grounds that it was inconspicuous, reliable, and cheaper than sending them insured by courier service. But the law of averages must dictate that some letters and parcels just don't reach their destination, however frustrating that is. But I do agree that not being able to timeously complain is a disgrace. 92.30.74.111 (talk) 22:10, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Your letter will probably be delivered tomorrow. Are you sure that the recipient was at home to sign for the letter? Unfortunately, you can't track or trace the letter online because only the delivery is recorded. If it is really lost, then there is compensation of up to £41 available. For urgent items, "Guaranteed next-day delivery" is more appropriate. Sorry, this doesn't help for your lost or delayed letter. I can sympathise with your frustration, especially when the distance was so short! Dbfirs 00:44, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

"Your letter will probably be delivered tomorrow". LOL! So on the basis of zero knowledge, including that its been undelivered on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th. and 7th. days after posting, you happily make that pronouncement? That shows the standard of veracity that the internet has developed a reputation for. 92.24.191.128 (talk) 13:49, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

People are trying to help, why are you being so nasty? ╟─TreasuryTag►Speaker─╢ 14:16, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, I was using a local idiom (containing irony which obviously doesn't translate well). I meant "Your letter still has a (small) probability of being delivered tomorrow". I'll be more careful about my use of idiom in future! Dbfirs 08:14, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Recorded delivery isn't about having any better or worse chance of the letter being delivered. It's about the recipient being unable to claim that it wasn't delivered when in fact it was. If (for example) you sold someone something on eBay - if you just post the item to them, they can simply take delivery of the item - then claim that you didn't send it and probably get a refund from PayPal or whatever. On the other hand, if you send it recorded delivery - then you'll have proof that they did in fact sign for it - and you'll be safe from their fraud. However, if it really doesn't get there, you can at least prove that you sent it - and make the claim through the post office. SteveBaker (talk) 02:04, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

No need to keep pointing out the blinking obvious Steve. 92.24.191.128 (talk) 13:49, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

People are trying to help, why are you being so nasty? ╟─TreasuryTag►Speaker─╢ 14:16, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Steve was pointing out the blinking obvious that you clearly did not know. In your post you say "Its disgraceful that you cannot even trust recorded delivery to get a letter there". Steve pointed out that this is not the reason for Recorded Delivery. If you want to find out more, call them on 08457 740 740 - this is not premium rate. In my experience they answer quite quickly. YMMV. --Phil Holmes (talk) 07:33, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Exactly. Recorded delivery is all about proof of delivery - not guarantee of delivery. So your clearly stated expectation of more reliable delivery by recorded mail was clearly a misunderstanding. I merely sought to correct that. It seems that your entire outrage is due to one misunderstanding or another. The "recorded" bit worked fine - when the mail wasn't delivered, you were able to find that out because you'd sent it "recorded delivery". Your expectation of some other kind of service improvement over regular first-class mail was unjustified. Like any complex system, the mail sometimes fails - it's inevitable, and widely understood. You got unlucky. Your only (perhaps) justifiable complaint is the amount of time that has to elapse before you can claim for a loss. But even that is not entirely unreasonable because the mail service has to be allowed time to correct the error if the mail was (for example) redirected to the wrong address and might (as we speak) still be delivered. Reducing that time would result in them paying out more claims for things that were eventually delivered - and that would push up the price of postage. Some kind of a balance has to be struck between cost of service and delay for payment of loss. Furthermore, you seem to imagine that the distance the mail had to travel should have had some effect on the outcome - but it really doesn't. I'm sure you realize that the mail isn't carried from the postbox directly to it's destination! It first travels to some large sorting office somewhere - possibly to a number of such places - and these days, that could easily mean that the letter travels 100 miles or more before it arrives at a destination just one mile from where it was posted. The time-to-deliver and the probability of mis-delivering are completely unrelated to the distance to the final destination. SteveBaker (talk) 13:56, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Grand Rapids from 5/4-5/5-5/6-1931 in my posession

I have the above three papers.What do I do with them and how do I store them for preservtion? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.227.170.48 (talk) 17:59, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

One option may be to store them in plastic bags, like those used for preserving comic books; a local comic-book shop may be able to help locate a vendor, or even order some for you that are designed to hold newspapers. Also, I found this website talking about how to preserve old newspapers. Hope this gets you started! --McDoobAU93 (talk) 18:43, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

orkut

how can I used orkut as my business site.Supriyochowdhury (talk) 18:59, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean business site? That will depend on what your business is... --Tango (talk) 23:23, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

See the article Orkut. Orkut is intended to be a social network service and has in place a system to disable attempts to exploit it for spam. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 13:47, 19 May 2010 (UTC)