XP password and encryption

["J. Yoon" <supercool9000 () hotmail com>]

I have heard that any password less than 15 characters is worthless on NTLM 
because it's in reality just two 7 char passwds.  If cracking a 7 char 
passwd only takes a couple of hours (say 10 hours avg on a tip-top PC), then 
cracking a 14 char passwd (which is just TWO 7 char passwds) will take only 
twice which is about 20 hours...

1) Does this mean that even if I use a 21 char password I am still wasting 
my time since it will only take 3 times the 7-char , which is 30 hours or 
so? I was always under the impression that each additional character 
increases the encryption in a non-linear way... but maybe I was wrong.

2) From your expert opinion, how many characters should our passwords on XP 
box be
in order for us to keep our sanity AND still rest at ease being secure 
enough for most everday purposes?

3) Is there any way to strengthen the encryption so that even when someone 
gets access to my keyfile they won't be able to crack it any time soon (for 
a whole entire month or even upto a year on a 4 Gigahertz Processor) ?

3a) Is this possible within the existing Win XP Pro / Win2000 architecture?

3b) do Linux versions such as Mandrake or Suse support such crazy-strength 
encryption?

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