Ok,
     Ted was obviously much better at math and more awake than me :) hehehe

      I think his method handles spaces more correctly  than mine :)  I was
thinking of the spaces in file names of less than 8 characters :)

Art "Where was that Calculus book? I need to study it" Bahrs

>>> Ted Ashton <[log in to unmask]> 12/10/96 11:09am >>>
Thus it was written in the epistle of Art Bahrs,
>
> um... my handy-dandy HP 32SII calculator says that the MPE maximum number of
> group names, account names or   user names would be: 2.4682 E 12  given the
> following assumptions :)
>           Must start with an Alpha         26 possible {Character 1 of name}
>           10 digits, 26 Chars & Space    37 possible {Chararcters 2-8 of name}
>
>     So would be: (26) (37)(37)(37)(37)(37)(37)(37)
>
> Is this right? heheh :)
>
> Art Bahrs
>
Hm... Not quite.  That is, unless I've misunderstood something somewhere, group
names cannot have *embedded* spaces :-).

So we have
  26+26*36+26*36*36+ . . . +26*36*36*36*36*36*36*36 =
  26*(1+36+36^2+36^3+36^4+36^5+36^6+36^7) =
  26*(80,603,140,213) =  2,095,681,645,538

an number over 3.7 E 11 less than the previous estimate :-).  I'm starting to
be concerned that there isn't enough space out there!

Ted "Namespace Claustrophobia" Ashton