h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Q. If you install a network controlled with Microsoft Server technology, and you don't change the default security settings, how many days will it be before your password expires and you're forced to change it?

If you installed a network controlled with Microsoft Server technology and don't change the default security settings for work purposes - and promptly move abroad and change jobs entirely, you'll never be forced to change the password.

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Don't all IT managers do that as a matter of course?

I won't prolong this, but it would be nice for someone to have a stab at it

I say 90 days

42

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42 it is!

It's in a table if you scroll down this page:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh994573(v=ws.11).aspx


Clearly this is a nod to Douglas Adams - I can't imagine any other reason they'd choose that value. I'm just surprised to see it from Microsoft.

Did I guess right?

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I discovered this in less-than-ideal circumstances this morning. Some fool managed to reset the sytem to its default settings. Everyone who hadn't changed their password in the last 42 days had theirs foreceably expired.

42 days are six weeks. If every month but one were six weeks long, there'd be eight of them in the year, with one that's only four weeks long. Not that they're likely to change to that system.

Our months are already out of sync with the lunar cycle, so there's no reason they couldn't switch to that.

The question is: which three months should we drop, and which should we have as 4 weeks?

I never liked February, or October.

The birthday industry would squawk about any changes. Drivers' licenses get renewed on your birthday here.

That's no problem - It's all pretty arbitary, isn't it? We'll just assign people new birthdays. In fact, for a small fee, you can choose any one you like. Popular days may cost more.

With the revenue we earn, we can pay £100 million to the NHS every day.

Well, I sure won't pick Christmas a birthday. Fewer presents overall.

Tell me about it. And you can't have a party because it's the holiday and all your friends are out of town. And that's just the downside when you're a kid. When you're an adult, your friends are still out of town or just busy with family, and most of the drinking establishments are closed.


The absolute worst birthday (in predominately Xtian nations) is 1 January. Not only do all the above problems apply, but also everyone is burned out and hungover.

"With the revenue we earn, we can pay £100 million to the NHS every day"
Icy, would that be *instead of*, or *as well as*, the however-many millions the UK will give the NHS instead of giving them to the EU ?

It was a reference to a promise Boris Johnson gave should we vote for. Brexit.

Thought so.

I've a fri50s, seems unable to know how old he is, one year to the next... the problem is, having a 1 January birthday, Im not entirely sure he understands the nature of one year chaning to the next year, and so, he doesn't actualy seem to quite know when he was born <laugh. frightening .. but true... if we're going to rearrange the weeks and months, can we do something abot the day length at the same time? Its utterly wrong, a day needs to be about 5 hours longer, maybe a bit more, err... OK that's just my messe dup serkadian rythem... say, for ease... make a day 30 hours long, which would be far more sensible; 20 hours to 'do st 'stuff', then 10 hours to rest and sleep and eat and stuff... seems logical to me... hmm, an dif the week was 10 days, and then a month of say 6 weeks, it'd work out a lot easier IMO... and do away with febuary completely and maybe august as its always too hot and busy in August