Who wants to be like Bill…Daley? When Commerce Secretary William Daley visited Theodore Roosevelt High School last week to talk about civic duties, most students reported that they plan to vote and volunteer as a way of improving their communities. And when Daley asked if any students were interested in the public sector, he received a lukewarm reaction. But when he challenged the students by asking how many wanted to be Commerce Secretary, not a hand graced the air. "Who can blame them? There are no stock options in UncleSam.com," said Daley relaying the episode to a group at a Fairfax Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday.

     After surviving the Y2K computer bug with just a few minor snafus, the Defense Department experienced a personnel glitch. One day after Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre announced that he would be leaving at the end of March, Marv Langston, deputy assistant secretary of Defense and the Pentagon's deputy chief information officer, gave her notice. Hamre will head up the Center for Strategic and International Studies as its president and CEO, while Langston assumes the CEO spot at Internet start-up, Salus Media. Replacing Hamre is the current secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Rudy de Leon.

     The postman rang a second time for Peter Jacobson. After serving the United States Postal Service for 24 years, and taking off five years to pursue opportunities in the private sector, Jacobson returned to assume the chief technology officer post. The agency had been hunting for someone to replace Norm Lorentz, who left to join earthweb.com earlier this year. Jacobson will be responsible for all technology-related operations at the agency.

     Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, has bragging rights to the first Cyber Champion of the century, joining Daley and U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky who nabbed the title last year. The Business Software Alliance will bestow the accolade in February for Hatch's efforts to protect intellectual property — a policy issue topping the BSA's list of priorities. "Specifically, the senator has taken the lead on legislation that promotes strong copyright protection for creators of software and other creative works," BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman said in a statement. "Senator Hatch recognizes that intellectual property theft, both in the U.S. and abroad, is a serious, pervasive problem that threatens U.S. economic interests and costs thousands of American jobs." Hatch also was commended for being instrumental in key copyright protection legislation and his efforts to extend permanently the research and development tax credit.

     Steve Forbes is taking radical measures for his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Forbes launched a multimedia e-mail campaign courtesy of RadicalMail, which provides a streaming technology and eCommercial.com, which sends files as attachments to an e-mail. "We are optimistic that they are going to be effective," said Chip Gately, marketing director for Forbes 2000. "And we are assessing what's the most effective way to deliver a message on the Internet. The jury is still out on that, but in the coming months the Internet is going to play more a role in politics and we want to make sure we are on the leading edge of it." The body of the e-mails will contain graphics and audio, bringing Forbes right into users' in boxes. Forbes' camp launched the technology last week and is currently testing it and accepting feedback. Gately said that the executable file takes longer for an e-mail user to download, but provides a clearer image than the streaming technology.

     IBM was churning out cutting-edge inventions during 1999 and for the seventh consecutive year received the most patents in the private sector. When the United States Patent and Trademark Office released its annual list of the top 10 ten recipients of private sector patents, the only company coming close to IBM's 2,756 patents was NEC with 1,842.

- by Jessica Smith