The second most common odd question I get asked is "Why is the default userid 62?"
Andrew attempted to give the most complete answer but the truth is the answer is lost in the dim and distant past.
There is nothing you can do about it.
On every install a superadmin user is created with username "admin" and userid "62".
I have blogged before why it's so important for your web site security to remove these known values.
So what has this to do with a Joker and Joomla 1.6?
The other day I was doing a quick install of the latest Joomla 1.6 SVN to see if these "security" issues had been addressed and what did I find?
Default Username in Joomla 1.6
You can now chose any username that you want for the "superuser". It still suggests "admin" as the default though so I guess most people will miss the opportunity to create something more unique and secure.
A little change for the better
If you take advantage of this your site will be just that little bit more secure.
And as you can see here my default username isn't admin any more although it doesnt look like I can change the actual name of the account during the install.
Did you spot the little joke?
The ID of this user, created by the Joomla 1.6 Installation, isn't 62 any more.
Oh no!! Instead one of the Joomla 1.6 developers has played a little joke on us all and changed it to 42.
Which as we know is the answer to "life, the universe and everything".
I can't tell who the Joker is as the SVN doesn't go back far enough to show who made the commit, but I guess it goes to show that Open Source developers do have a sense of humour.
