Technology may seem inherently interesting, but it's still the people behind the hardware and software who make the best stories. Here is a rundown of News.com's most intriguing one-on-one interviews from the past year.

When Bill Clinton ran against Bob Dole in 1996, the Internet was a blip on most politicians' radar screens. Eight years later, every politico handler worth their salt was blogging, organizing and fundraising via the Web. Zephyr Teachout, the cyberbrains behind Howard Dean's remarkable run, may have built the model that future campaign staffs will swear by.

But the Internet didn't hog center stage for the entire year. A lot of ink was devoted to the ongoing drama involving Oracle's pursuit of PeopleSoft. Although CEO Larry Ellison eventually got his way with PeopleSoft, Hewitt Pate made him earn it. The Justice Department's antitrust chief took Oracle to court in the first big face-off pitting Uncle Sam against a software maker since the Microsoft antitrust days.

Speaking of Ellison, if there is one person in the computer industry who knows Oracle's mercurial No. 1 better than anyone it is Oracle's former No. 2 Ray Lane. The veteran software executive, who is now a venture capitalist, had a message for the rest of the software industry about the future: It won't necessarily be written in Silicon Valley.

One person Lane clearly had in mind was Vivek Paul, the CEO of Wipro Technologies, one of India's largest IT outfits and a major beneficiary of the pickup in offshore outsourcing from the United States.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, might have thought he was starring in a reprise of the movie "Groundhog's Day." Just as it had in 2003, the company struggled to remain one step ahead of a band of virus writers whose nasty handicraft infiltrated the Internet in record numbers.

What's the secret sauce to Dell's success? If indeed there were a recipe, then the IBMs and Hewlett-Packards of the world would doubtless follow the instructions down to a T. Although Dell has made it look easy, it's not that simple. Just ask Kevin Rollins, who has directed this phenomenal climb to the top of the computing world.

Despite his decision to bow out next year as CEO, Craig Barrett has had no time to get sentimental about one of the more storied careers in Silicon Valley. That's because 2004 proved to be one of the chipmaker's toughest years to navigate.

During his years as a senior government counter-terrorism officer and then White House cyberczar, Richard Clarke earned a reputation for straight talk. And when it comes to security and IT, he has little patience for pipedreams.

--Charles Cooper