Consider these two sentences:   How many people came?  Quite few. How many people came?  Quite a few.   The first means few people came (less than expected), the second means many (more than expected).  Why the difference, and what exactly is the "a" referring to?
I have few friends.   I have a few friends.      I thought "few" means just one, two or even none. "A few" typically means more than two. However it seems to me some people say "few" when they really mean "a few", am I right?
Do I need a Schengen visa if I have UK permanent residency? What should a physics undergrad aspiring to be a string theorist learn before grad school? The question I guess is pretty clear. I am a physics undergrad wishing to pursue research in quantum gravity(string theory?). What are the subjects I should learn other than the usual compulsory undergrad courses such as quantum mechanics, and GR, etc? Things that come to my mind are QFT, lie algebras, differential geometry, algebraic geometry etc? Other than this, could you suggest any topic that are not entirely essential but interesting in mathematical physics, gauge theory etc (e.g. solitons, monopoles etc). Actually I am looking for a mini project of sorts which would give me an idea of what these fields really are. I have done some lie algebras, classical field theory and am currently studying QM. I am working to integrate unit testing into the development process on the team I work on and there are some sceptics. What are some good ways to convince the sceptical developers on the team of the value of Unit Testing? In my specific case we would be adding Unit Tests as we add functionality or fixed bugs. Unfortunately our code base does not lend itself to easy testing. Proof that the coefficients in an OLS model follow a t-distribution with (n-k) degrees of freedom For various such sentences in many cases I get confused, it seems different for different cases. I want to know if someone left doing something for permanantly then what should be used? Also give some examples for different cases. Suppose... "I left my bag" means "I forgot my bag". but If I want to say the same for permanentaly "I left bringing my bag". Where should we use "stop" and "quit" then? Stack Exchange API too many requests from this IP address How to force Windows to rename a file with a special character? I have a song that Windows can't play because there is a question mark in the name of the file.  "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?.ogg" // as an example   So I try to rename it and Windows complains whether I try it in Explorer or from command prompt.  Error I get when trying to copy, rename, or move is:     The Filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect   Is there a Windows way to force a rename in this case?   Update  I'll keep an eye on this question, but after 13 answers and many attempts (aside form 3rd party solutions) it seems that Windows can't do this (or at least my windows can't, no short names). So I'm accepting the answer which was my original solution anyway of using Linux. It would be nice to see Windows handle this somehow, so don't stop just because I've accepted this answer, the question still stands! What is the size of an enum in C? Solve $f(x)f(2x^2) = f(2x^3+x)$ The full question is to solve $f(x)f(2x^2) = f(2x^3+x)$, prove there are at most one solution per degree of $f(x)$ and then find all the solutions. (Here $f(x)$ is assumed to be polynomial.)  So far I have proven that $(x^2+1)^n$ works for even degree polynomials, and I'm pretty near certain there are no odd solutions.  Is the following a valid argument for there only being at most 1 solution per degree? Let $K$ be the degree of $f(x)$ then $f(x)f(2x^2) = f(2x^3+x)$ produces $3k+1$ linearly independent equations with only $k+1$ independent variables. Therefore for any degree $K$ polynomial there can be at most 1 solution.  Finally, is there any elegant way to prove that no odd solutions exist? How to prove that you have significant ties with family in your home country? I have come across numerous questions where I am given the picture such as the above one been asked "how many rectangles are there?". I have even come across some slightly different images that instead of rectangles you are supposed to find the number of triangles. Well, I was thinking whether there is any formula or strategy that is used to solve these problems without having to manually count every shape.  Help would be appreciated.  Thank you :) How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX? How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX?   This is a general question and should collect useful answers for all users. I hope we can use this as a reference "Unable to locate package sudo" when i try to install sudo on new Debian Selecting the right crank length What is the best way to determine the correct crank length for my height and more specifically my leg length? What makes matter travel along geodesics? The relativistic explanation of gravity is geometric, the motion of a body in a field of space-time distortion can be described as being at rest and travelling along a geodesic of that field, but why does it travel along that geodesic? What causes it to move? How to change language of a specific application? 2/15/18 compiz update broke unity This  forced removal of unity and ubuntu-desktop on my 16.04 Ubuntu system.   The offending package that is missing, but unity needs, seems to be compiz-core-abiversion-20151010. It seems to be a , and I can't find it to download.    As it happens, I mostly use LXDE on this system, but I'd be very unhappy if I used Unity...  Since I do occasionally use the Unity desktop, is there a fix for this?  Edit: related questions are rolling in. Looks like a major quality escape          Edit 2: How to Solve this Arithmetic Progression Question? Please help-  Four different integers form an increasing AP.One of these numbers is equal to the sum of the squares of the other three numbers.Then- find all the four numbers.  I assumed the numbers to be $a,a+d,a+2d,a+3d$ and wlog let $a+3d$ this number and according to question-  $a^2+(a+d)^2+(a+2d)^2=a+3d$  but I could not solve the above equation. How do I set up a shipping condition that accesses the value of a specific field in product? I have a term reference field in product called "Weight" with values "Light", "Medium" &amp; "heavy". I am using flat rate shipping service and trying to check the value of "Weight" field in Calculation rules.I know that I need to expose it by using "entity has field" but I end up having  commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:0 commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:1 commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:2 commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:3 commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:0... commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:1... commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:2... commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:3...    I was able to get to the weight field by using any of them and then did a Data Comparison  commerce-line-item:order:commerce-line-items:0:commerce-product:field-product-weight   this condition worked ok first time but not after that. can anyone please help me on this or if you think of another solution please let me know. Thanks Error -504 on appliation installation Yes. I've read all other questions regarding this problem. Like this one:  It's the same problem as this one but with more background information and an other app:   The details: My device is an Ulefone Be Touch 2 running Android 5.0.  My connection is perfect. To be sure I tried different networks, among them are 3G, 4G and wifi on ADSL, VDSL, cable and fiber. I've also used Tor and 3 different VPN providers in 3 countries on 2 continents. Let's say I ruled the network out.   A single app does not install: OpenKeychain.  Currently I have 126 apps installed. It does not install via desktop browser > play store > install button.    I have enough free space (40GB). The app is 7MB.   Re-adding Google account and clearing caches did not work.    Even a complete device wipe and re-install didn't work.     Downloaded the apk and tried manual installation, same error.   I also own a Nexus 7 (2013 wifi) and the app installs fine on that device.