n. When one wishes to specify a large but random number of things, and the context is inappropriate for N, certain numbers are preferred by hacker tradition (that is, easily recognized as placeholders). These include the following:
For further enlightenment, consult the 'Principia Discordia', 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', 'The Joy of Sex', and the Christian Bible (Revelation 13:8).
See also Discordianism or consult your pineal gland.
One common rhetorical maneuver uses any of the canonical random numbers as placeholders for variables.
"The max function takes 42 arguments, for arbitrary values of 42."
"There are 69 ways to leave your lover, for 69 = 50."
This is especially likely when the speaker has uttered a random number and realizes that it was not recognized as such, but even 'non-random' numbers are occasionally used in this fashion. A related joke is that pi equals 3 -- for small values of pi and large values of 3.