I know we are to use “a” before words that start with a consonant sound and “an” before words that start with a vowel sound, but in the case of an initialism that have a vowel sound for first letter, but a consonant sound for the abbreviated word, which of the two indefinite articles are to be used? Example:  I have an SSD drive installed in my computer. I have a SSD drive installed in my computer.  In the example above SSD is an initialism for Solid State Drive. I'm inclined to think that there may be separate rules for speech and written approaches to this, as when speaking I would obviously use the first phrase in the example.
99% of the time, I'm clear on when I should use "a" versus "an." There's one case, though, where people &amp; references I respect disagree.  Which of the following would you precede with "a" or "an," and why?   FAQ FUBAR SCUBA   [Note: I've read the questions  and , but the rules given there don't necessarily apply here.]    [Edited to add]  Here's a shorter (and hopefully clearer) version of the question…  In written English, which is correct (and why): "a FAQ" or "an FAQ"?  Some references with differing opinions:   an: the  and  a: the Microsoft Manual of Style for Tech Publications, 3e either: the  and
How to evaluate the limit of this expression?  $$\lim_{x\to\infty} \frac{\sin^2\left( \sqrt{x+1}-\sqrt{x}\right)}{1-\cos^2\frac{1}{x}}$$  I managed to simplify the denominator into a sinus form by the Pythagorean formula, and also modified the argument of the sinus in the numerator by dividing with a conjugate which I think is necessary, into this final form:  $$\lim_{x\to\infty} \frac{\sin^2\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{x+1}+\sqrt{x}}\right)}{\sin^2\frac{1}{x}}$$  And that's where I got stuck. So far I've tried to come up with some solution to eliminate the sinus from the denominator, without success. I'm sure the solution is pretty obvious but I don't quite know how to modify the trigonometric functions in this fashion, so any help would be most appreciated. Total number of solutions of an equation What is the total number of solutions of an equation of the form $x_1 + x_2 + \cdots + x_r = m$ such that $1 \le x_1 &lt; x_2 &lt; \cdots &lt; x_r &lt; N$ where $N$ is some natural number and $x_1, x_2, \cdots, x_r, m$ are integers?  Also, what would be the solution in the relaxed case where $x_1, x_2, x_3, \dots, x_r$ could be equal? Which Ubuntu repositories are totally safe and free from malware? How to download all files from Ubuntu One? To friend vs. to befriend Prove that the difference between two rational numbers is rational This is a terribly simple question I'm sure, but I can't find a work-around in my proof. I must prove that the difference between two rational numbers is thus rational. Here is my attempt:     Let $a$ and $b$ be rational numbers. Therefore, \begin{align}  a=\frac{\lambda}{\beta},\:b=\frac{\xi}{\zeta},\:\ni\:\lambda,\beta,\xi,\zeta\in\mathbb{Z},\tag{1} \end{align} which gives us \begin{align}  a-b=\frac{\lambda}{\beta}-\frac{\xi}{\zeta}=\frac{\lambda\zeta-\xi\beta}{\beta\xi}.\tag{2} \end{align}   So I have shown that $a$ and $b$ are rational numbers which, by definition, can be represented by the quotient of two integers. But now how do I tackle the problem of the difference? By definition the difference between two integers is an integer. Does that require that this difference is thus rational?  Thank you for your time, Could cancer be in itself a evolutionary process? Could cancer be in itself a evolutionary process? Maybe in some way could it be a process of variation? Or would this idea be completely without support, if so, why?   I don't mean that each case would lead to evolution, but that within an entire group of organisms, it could lead to case of of individuals developing ways to resist what caused the cancer, maybe in cases of individuals beating the cancer or in cases of successive generations of off spring from individuals with cancer?   Could it be possible that in rare cases it could lead to the development of new organs or specialized cells? These wonderful icon overlays that give you useful information in the Windows Explorer are not showing up.   It's the most annoying with Dropbox (I already read ). I just tried reinstalling Dropbox - no help. I have this problem also with the  so I don't think that it is a dropbox problem specifically; and something is wrong in my OS. The OS is actually a pretty fresh clean-install...  OS: Win8 Pro 64-bit. How can I chain implicits in Scala? homemade chilli oil I am making chilli oil using light olive oil, crushed chilli, dried garlic, dried fennel seeds and parsley.  I have been making this for years. I am concerned about this Botulinum business. Should I be concerned? And what can i do to avoid this?  Currently, I heat the olive oil before putting it into the mixture, jar it, and normally keep it in the cupboard for months, with no problems with taste.  Another thing I am wondering is, how does one measure the expiry date on homemade chilli oil? Can someone help? Two figures side by side Unable to understand the syntax of the command find The find command seems to differ from other Unix commands.  Why is there the empty curly brackets and a backward flash at the end of the following command?  find * -perm 777 -exec chmod 770 {} \;   I found one reason for the curly brackets but not for the backward flash.   The curly brackets are apparently for the path     Same as -exec, except that ``{}'' is   replaced with as many pathnames as   possible for each invocation of   utility Taylor Series type inequality What is "Go" in cribbage? I've played a fair bit of cribbage, but I've never heard of scoring one point for "Go" (as mentioned in this other question: ).  What is it, and what impact does it have on the game? Herstein Topics in Algebra, $\pi \mid a$ or $(\pi,a) = 1$ Uk tourist visa - duration of stay My mother is given a UK tourist visa for 2 years with a duration of stay as 180 days. It is a c type multiple entry visa. Is this 180 days is the total stay she can take or is it duration of stay per visit.  Thanks in advance for your reply. I'm working with a date in this format: yyyy-mm-dd.  How can I increment this date by one day? I am in doubt as to whether the subject-verb agreement of the second sentence of this paragraph is correct :  Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the ideal home workshop because most people are limited by the space available and by their budget. However, the information and diagram here acts as a guide to help you formulate a sensible workshop layout and a machinery “wish list”.  I suppose if the compound subject is seen as a single unit, then the sentence can be considered as correct. A little further in the same book, another sentence has a singular verb with a compound subject :  Alternatively commandeer a garage, or build yourself a substantial workshop if outdoor space and permission allows – however, do consider the impact of machinery noise on your neighbours.  Can &quot;outdoor space and permission&quot; be seen as one thing, or would this be considered a mistake ? I've found  many queries to check edit counts, and I get different results for each one. Which one is the most accurate and up-to-date query? Or is there any way to see the edit count in stats? Is there a label/goto in Python? Is there a goto or any equivalent in Python to be able to jump to a specific line of code?