Visual Studio 2005 RTM (8.0.50727.42) : The answer to life, the universe and everyhting..

As is suggested at some MSDN Blogs, having the build number at 42 is not a coincidence at all.

42 was the answer that was calculated by Deep Thought for the question of “The answer to life, the universe and everyhting” in the book Douglas Adam’s, The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Excerpt from wikipedia:

The Ultimate Answer

According to the Hitchhiker’s Guide, researchers from a pan-dimensional, hyper-intelligent race of beings, construct Deep Thought, the second greatest computer of all time and space, to calculate the Ultimate Answer. After seven and a half million years of pondering the question, Deep Thought provides the answer: ” forty-two“.

“Forty-two!” yelled Loonquawl. “Is that all you’ve got to show for seven and a half million years’ work?”

“I checked it very thoroughly,” said the computer, “and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you’ve never actually known what the question is.”

Furthermore, the original .NET project was named “Project 42”.Read more here and here.