From: "Chuck Rienzo"
Mesage received (and answer):
>
>Don't anyone "skin" me for reporting this without proof but...my wife
>called from work at noon and said she heard (on the radio, I presume) that
>the Dept. of Motor Vehicles offices here (Arkansas) are receiving a bunch
>of "antique" license plates instead of the regular ones they need. You
>know, circa 1900...
>If this turns out to be a mistake or joke or some such I'll inform the
>"crew" but it certainly sounds possible. Probably one of those
>not-so-critical programs they haven't gotten around to fixing.
MY RESPONSE
API dateline- Portland Maine as reported in Cleveland Plain Dealer October 13,1999
State govt got its first Y2k months early when owners of 2000 model cars and
trucks received titles identifying their new vehicles as "horseless
carriages." story goes on to state that the state computer automatically
issues vehicles with a model year before 1916 a "horseless carriage"
designation. About 800 passenger car titles and about 1200 tractor trailer
titles were issued before the error was caught and commented that "since few
people pay cash, most of the titles went directly to banks and
institutions." I don't know if this is the origin of the radio story- but I
can imagine it happening in state after state as the same program might be
used by different agencies.... Chuck's wife (Tari)
-- Chuck's wife 'lurker in chief' (rienzoo@en.com), October 13, 1999
This is how the Electronic Telegraph saw it:
Millennium bug hits the road
HORSELESS carriages have returned to the
American state of Maine after a
millennium bug computer glitch mistakenly
classified about 2,000 new cars
and lorries as early 20th-century vehicles.
Despite spending millions of dollars
to prepare its systems to recognise the advent
of the 21st century, the state's
computers were unable to make the leap out of
this century and issued
registration documents dated Jan 1, 1900.
Dan Gwadosky, responsible for vehicle
registration, said the error was
compounded because the computer automatically
designates any pre-1916
vehicle as a horseless carriage. In most cases
the documents went to banks
and loan companies as the cars and lorries are
not due to be collected until
the new year. Robert Uhlig, Technology
Correspondent
-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 13, 1999.