One of the most important aspects of the life of Steve Jobs is the fact that his Mercedes never had license plates.
This fact bedeviled so many. How could this be? Was it special dispensation? Was it backhanders paid to unimpeachable policemen? Was it an intimate contact at the DMV?
No, no. According to a very cheery revelation in IT Wire, Jobs realized that California, with its traditional generosity of spirit, gave you six months to get license plates when you buy a new car.
So the wily different-thinker allegedly made an arrangement with a leasing company to give him a new Mercedes SL 55 AMG every six months, so that no random grouping of numbers and letters--or, worse, some sort of personalized motto--would ever be associated with his name.
This information reportedly came from Jon Callas, CTO of Entrust and a man who worked twice for Apple in a security capacity.
The thing that might waft around several minds is whether the leasing company tried to sell on the used Mercedes with the line "this used to be owned by Steve Jobs."
One can imagine the potential buyer standing there and declaring: "But it's only got 2,000 miles on the clock."
Just as one can imagine the man from the leasing company declaring: "Precisely. So it still has that new Steve Jobs smell."