Former Army Lt. Gen. Peter Kind will take up the post of director of the Information Coordination Center of the President's Y2K council. Kind has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from Harvard, and has degrees from the U.S. Marine Corps Communications Officer and Amphibious Warfare School and the U.S. Army War College. Besides having done Y2K work, he also lists "senior parachutist" on his lengthy resume.

    Rep. James Barcia, D-MI, plans a Y2K bill that seeks to curb the amount of disruption the federal government may experience. But the bill seems to duplicate White House efforts already underway. The bill also calls on agencies to schedule testing and implementation milestones before June 1, 1999 — something that the President's Council on Y2K Conversion already requires.

    Gov. Jesse Ventura, Ref-MN, is working with Minnesota Boy Scouts to urge families to "be prepared" for Y2K problems. Ventura is spearheading a "Y2K OK" effort, in which scouts will go door-to-door to deliver Y2K preparedness cards that remind residents to keep financial records and enough food and water to last at least a week.

    Randy Delucchi, a representative of Microsoft Hotmail, is the new director of operations services for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail. Though Hotmail is infamous for its use as a spamming device, Delucchi vows to lobby for tough anti-spam legislation. "I'm looking forward to sharing what I know about combating spammers with the CAUCE board. Stopping spammers has a domino effect. The more spam we stop, the less likely it is that others will bog down the Internet by sending it," Delucchi told members of the press.

    Sean Garrett is leaving Alexander Ogilvy, the PR firm that represents ICANN and the TechNet lobby. He's moving to Listen.com, a startup that distributes music over the Net.

    GOP Senators Spencer Abraham, MI, John Ashcroft, MO, Kit Bond, MO, Pete Domenici, NM, Bill Frist, TN, Slade Gorton, WA, Don Nickles, OK, Rick Santorum PA, and Olympia Snowe, ME, grabbed a nosh with America Online CEO Steve Case up on the Hill last week. Case and other industry execs chatted up the tech industry. "I just wanted to say hello to Steve Case and to shoot the breeze for a little bit," said Bond.

    Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-LA, has named six Republicans to his new FCC reform taskforce: Rep. Paul Gillmor, OH, who will chair the taskforce, and Reps. Nathan Deal, GA, Robert Ehrlich, MD, Vito Fossella, NY, Steve Largent, OK, and Chip Pickering, MS. All are members of the Commerce Committee.

    Some audience members started booing the Rolling Stones when, at a concert in Silicon Valley, the heart of the Rebel Alliance, the band played its hit turned Microsoft anthem "Start Me Up," according to published reports. At least, Sun Microsystems PR consultant Joanne Howard swears that was the reason. "I thought, 'It's probably Microsoft,'" she said.

    Bill Gates talked up Microsoft's "enhanced mission" since its March reorganization. In keynote remarks at the Chicago COMDEX Spring '99 conference, Gates said he envisions software and the Internet as empowerment tools. "Customers today want the ability to access the Internet using great software tools whether they are at home, at school, at work or on the road," said the man who does Windows.

    Boeing software engineer Scott Vesey learned he was on the Microsuit witness list by reading it in the paper — a development that surprised Microsoft as much as it did the startled Vesey. "On the day that the witness lists were published in the paper on a Saturday, did you say?" Microsoft lawyer Tom Burt asked Vesey, who replied simply, "Yeah."

    FCC Chairman William Kennard thinks "data is going to be the killer application for digital TV," he told the National Association of Broadcasters' Las Vegas convention. "Just as the jet engine revolutionized air travel, I think that when the broadcast airwaves go digital, it's going to revolutionize television in this country," Kennard said.

    Motion Picture Association of America President Jack Valenti isn't happy about the proliferation of movies on the Internet in MP3 format. "The theft of copyrighted material in any format cannot be left unaddressed. There is no exception in the case of Internet copyright theft. We won't condone it, and we will pursue those who steal film product and illegally transmit it via the Internet." Valenti has dominated the film industry for over 30 years, leaving a post as special assistant to then-President Lyndon Johnson to grab the job.

    Prince Philip of the United Kingdom warned Korean business leaders to be on their guard against Internet pornographers during a visit with his wife, who happens to be the Queen of England. "The Internet is a fantastic development but it is difficult to estimate the harm it can do when it is exploited by the peddlers of pornography and other crooks... Information technology has produced immense benefits for humanity but only when it is used with honesty and integrity. The opportunities that technology offer to humanity are greater than ever but so are the risks. I suggest that the greatest challenge before us is to find ways of combining high-quality technical training with a proper grounding in ethics and morality," said the prince.

    Send comments and contributions to Peter J.M. Orvetti.