Because this is a big CEO search in Silicon Valley, naturally the Hewlett-Packard board turned to star headhunter Jim Citrin of Spencer Stuart for help in finding the next leader for the tech giant.

He should not have to look far, since sources close to the situation said it is likely an internal candidate will be chosen over a more high-profile outsider.

The reason? As Maverick’s motto in the hit movie “Top Gun” goes: The need for speed.

As in speed at moving the focus at HP (HPQ) away from the scandal around the controversial departure of CEO Mark Hurd, his move to rival Oracle (ORCL) and the ensuing lawsuits, and back to the business of, well, business.

That would be best served by putting in place someone who knows the company well. And since the major divisions of HP are so huge that they could be considered companies unto themselves, these are very seasoned and experienced execs.

At the tippy-top of that list is Todd Bradley, who runs its Personal Systems Group and is also known as the man who bought Palm, the smartphone maker, which he once ran. (He is pictured above, headed for work on the 101.)

While making Palm’s technology a success for HP is a big risk, the move shows a nice proclivity for boldness. In addition, he is well known and well liked in Silicon Valley, even though he always deftly sidles away from BoomTown whenever I approach (which is, to be honest, also a very good instinct).

Also on the very short list, although much less mentioned than Bradley: Vyomesh Joshi, who runs HP’s giant printer business.

One minus: Joshi–an incredibly affable man known as VJ–has also been a longtime director on the worser-board-than-HP at Yahoo (YHOO). So, in my mind, he’d have some–in the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo–’splaining to do.

And while Ann Livermore, who runs the enterprise business, has been mentioned many times in the past for a bigger role at HP, she remains, most sources say, a longshot. Here it’s kind of like that old Oscar cliché–being nominated is the real honor.

Of course, there are plenty of outsiders who are certainly solid selections and some wilder ideas the board could consider–my pick would be Google (GOOG) President of Global Sales Operations and Business Development Nikesh Arora or Juniper (JNPR) CEO Kevin Johnson.

But it’s clear an internal candidate would settle the waters sooner than later.

And, despite internal rivalry, it would also prevent an exodus of these execs, which is the last thing HP needs right now.

Until a selection is made, here is the video of that scene from “Top Gun” to get everyone pumped:

Yesterday, BoomTown wished Carol Bartz a happy one-year anniversary as CEO of Yahoo.

And today, it is time to shamelessly judge her tenure!

As I noted, in an interview with Bloomberg last week, Bartz gave herself a “B-minus in her first year.”

In the Bloomberg interview, Bartz explained that she gave herself a B- because she should have moved faster to reorganize Yahoo (YHOO) and to strike an online advertising and search partnership with Microsoft (MSFT), even as she noted that the management challenge at Yahoo “was a little tougher internally than I think I had anticipated.”

But an overall grade is too easy! Instead, over the next days, it’s time to drill down on specifics: Management, financials, product innovation, deal-making and, yes, moxie.

And for management, I give Bartz an A-.

Here’s why:

Pros: There is no question that the hard-talking Bartz took charge from the get-go, expertly grabbing the reins at Yahoo and hitting targets on her very first day like some kind of digital Annie Oakley.

At her memorable press conference on Jan. 13, 2009–lasting only 15 minutes and three questions–Bartz sternly admonished everyone to give Yahoo some “friggin’ breathing room” and noted that the company “frankly, could use a little management.”

It was a refreshing statement of the obvious, especially after the tough year suffered by outgoing CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang, who was pretty spent by the end of his tenure.

Thus, any leader who had any kind of kinetic energy was going to get noticed.

And Bartz? She is–and I mean this in the nicest way–a nuclear reactor set to high.

At the press conference, Bartz also described herself a “straight shooter.”

Finally, she said she thought it “nonsense” to think that Yahoo was not feeling great about itself, spitting out the word “nonsense” in that scary-mommy, end-of-discussion way, like someone who has kids and knows a thing or two about nonsense.

And, I would have to say, Bartz has pretty much kept up the necessary take-charge tone and followed it up with action.

She has projected firm leadership internally and to Wall Street, made cuts in staff immediately and restructured her top management quickly, rendered fast decisions about cutting or selling off the hairball units at Yahoo, and struck key partnerships with Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook.

And she has done so with little of the sentimentality that had long characterized Yahoo, going out of her way to tell people what she thought rather than doing the typical “Kumbaya” moves.

If her success in management could be boiled down, its essence would be this: Carol knows how to clean up a troubled company, Carol knows how to take charge and most of all, Carol makes decisions.

Cons: And that’s just where the minus comes in.

From the start and still today, I have heard many at Yahoo grumble that while Bartz has a terrific ability to make decisions, she might be too much about decisive decision-making than about making good decisions.

To be fair, that’s exactly what people who avoid making tough decisions always say.

Still, the worry about this has persisted, with many calling Bartz’s manner more showy than substantive, more brute force than finesse. Her tough style–especially when she starts to curse–definitely grates some.

There is obviously a whiff of sexism here–which any strong-speaking woman in tech is subject to and must find a way to completely ignore.

It is hard to do. Thus, I have heard Bartz negatively called by employees: Sarah Palin of the Internet (Maverick!), Al Haig of the Internet (I’m in charge here!) and Tony Soprano of the Internet (Badda Bing!).

Externally, while she has a lot of prominent supporters in Silicon Valley, more than enough major Internet execs have asked me sotto voce if the former Autodesk (ADSK) CEO knows enough about the Internet business–and not just software and tech, where she has loads of experience–to be an effective leader (I will get to that when I grade product innovation).

What’s interesting here is that for all those who don’t like her style, she also garners a rabid fan base at Yahoo and among investors, who are very glad someone is projecting leadership and putting the ducks in order at the company.

The bottom line, though, is that Bartz does not seem to care all that much about what anyone thinks of her.

On her first day, she said: “My focus is on turning the company around.”

And in this regard, she has most definitely kept that focus and that promise.

Of course, all of this depends on how Yahoo recovers financially and how its stock performs on Wall Street, which will be the next area to be graded.

At least Yahoo got one day of stock euphoria, on the news that its CEO, Jerry Yang, was stepping down, before Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped yet another bomb on the troubled Internet giant by saying once more with feeling that he is not at all interested in buying it.

Yahoo (YHOO) stock plummeted on the news, dropping below $10 a share to close at $9.14, down $2.41 or an astonishing 21 percent.

While lack of interest in acquiring Yahoo is a sentiment that Ballmer has expressed more times than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said “maverick” in the presidential campaign, Wall Street continues to hold out hope that Microsoft might swoop in and make a new takeover bid for all of Yahoo.

It will not. Let’s repeat. It. Will. Not.

Thus, an obviously frustrated Ballmer reiterated his nondesire for Yahoo at Microsoft’s annual shareholders meeting, near its Redmond HQ today.

“We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo,” Ballmer said. “We did our best…we’ve moved on.”

And so should investors, stock analysts and hedge fund vultures, who actually contact BoomTown on a daily basis, asking if when I wrote that Microsoft (MSFT) was not interested in buying Yahoo, I actually meant that it was interested.

Not interested means, well, not interested, except when it comes to those who wish fervently for a pop in Yahoo stock.

But the only way that is going to happen is slowly, as Yahoo rebuilds its much-battered business, brick by brick. And that presumably will happen when a new CEO is selected to run Yahoo.

Lucky for Yahoo, what Ballmer has repeatedly also said is that he was very interested in (and said again today) a search partnership deal with the company.

Microsoft essentially wants to take over that part of Yahoo’s business and will likely give it a pretty penny to do so. For all its troubles, Yahoo remains the No. 2 search player, well behind Google (GOOG), but well ahead of Microsoft.

Microsoft execs think grabbing Yahoo’s business will help it gain on Google–good luck with that, but it gets an A for effort!

And it also hopes another reorganization of its digital businesses will help it do so.

Right now, for example, newly annointed digital exec Yusuf Mehdi is deep in the midst of a restructuring of his division.

Mehdi’s online services portfolio at Microsoft now includes marketing, online audience business development and product management for MSN and the search properties, but divisions and execs are being shifted around.

But the big news, of course, will be the person Ballmer selects to be Mehdi’s boss, as well as the boss for Satya Nadella, the SVP who heads engineering for Microsoft’s search, portal and advertising platform group, and for Brian McAndrews, the SVP for the advertiser and publisher solutions group.

While Ballmer has taken his sweet time in picking someone, after Kevin Johnson left his post overseeing the division in late July, sources inside and outside Microsoft have told me the company is very close to picking a new head.

That would be a good thing since Ballmer has worn out his Rolodex trying–he has been turned down by many, including former Yahoo CEO Dan Rosensweig.

While I am trying to ferret out the current choice, sources said the main candidate is more technically oriented and is well known in Silicon Valley.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

As BoomTown has noted, one of the best things to come out of this election has been the very funny and very topical humor that has been on "Saturday Night Live" in this political cycle.

Headlined by Tina Fey's perfect impression of Republican VP candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the offerings from the comedy television show has been biting without stooping to the rank meanness from so many other places by both sides.

Last night, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain--who has been on SNL before (his "John McCain Sings Barbra Streisand" skit was really a gem from that appearance)--was in two skits on the show and did a great job in both.

The first was a really clever opening sketch in which he and Fey as Palin appeared on the QVC cable shopping network, sheepishly explaining that they could not afford to buy time on the major networks as Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama did last week.

Money quote from McCain: "I'm a true maverick, a Republican without money."

Along with a set of "John McCain Pork Knives" and "McCain Fine Gold" (with Cindy McCain as the comely demoer), Fey (as Palin) goes rogue and starts selling "Palin in 2012" T-shirts.

In a second appearance on "Weekend Update," McCain did another nice turn, running through a series of new strategies to win, such as "The Sad Grandpa" and the "The Reverse Maverick."

Here are the videos:

Opening QVC Sketch

Weekend Update

The G1 is built around a model of openness, enabling developers to create applications — software programs, called “apps” for short — that will succeed or fail according to the feedback from the online community. Naturally, these community-contributed programs need a marketplace where G1 users can find them, and the Android Market provides just that.

This week, I installed various applications from the Android Market on a G1 and tested them out. Google (GOOG) says it will launch with around 40 to 50 applications in this virtual store, and these and all other apps will be available free of charge from now until at least the start of next year.

BreadCrumbz makes maps.

I found these apps to be useful, entertaining and mostly straightforward. There were a few that I felt tried to jam too much into one application, such as BreadCrumbz, an app that asks users to add pictures, instructional arrows and labels to maps that they make for friends. Other apps kept it short and sweet, like Wi-Fi Toggle — a one-touch button that turns wireless capability on or off to save battery power.

The G1′s apps are more utilitarian than most apps I’ve tested for Apple’s iPhone — and not quite as visually pleasing. I even compared one G1 program, Plusmo College Football, directly with the same app running on the iPhone, and I missed the artsy touches of the Apple (AAPL) version — like menus that flipped 180 degrees when selected rather than simply opening.

One downside: Only a measly 70 megabytes of internal flash memory are reserved on the G1 for storing these third-party applications. Once you fill that limited internal storage space, you have to delete some of your apps to add more. You can’t currently store apps on the phone’s roomier removable memory card. (A one-gigabyte microSD comes with the G1.) The iPhone doesn’t set such an arbitrary limit on application-storage space. The Android Market, like Apple’s iTunes, keeps a record of each user’s installed apps so they can be easily downloaded again later at no extra charge (if they carried a fee). But, unlike the iPhone, the G1 can’t back up your apps to a PC or Mac.

The G1′s open model means extra setup steps during app installation. For example, if an application will access certain information — such as a user’s Internet connection, location data (as identified by GPS) or other personal information (calendar, contacts, etc.) — warnings appear during installation, and the user must grant permission. In addition, many apps come with license agreements that must be okayed before users can continue. If something goes wrong with an app, people can post complaints on community boards or email developers, whose email addresses appear during installation.

The Android Market home page.

To offer a general idea of what’s available, I’ve highlighted a handful of apps that I like. I broke the applications into three groups: Functional, Fun (if occasionally kitschy) and Frills.

Functional

Wi-Fi Toggle: This does what it says. Once installed, it adds an icon to the G1′s desktop that provides a quick way to turn Wi-Fi on and off without digging into the settings menu.

Locale: Like Wi-Fi Toggle on steroids, this app allows a user to set up a G1 so it dynamically changes its settings in specific conditions. The settings can respond to calls from certain people or changes in the phone’s battery power, calendar, the user’s location or the time. For instance, the Wi-Fi can automatically turn off, ringer volume can go up or down, desktop wallpaper can change or a post can be sent. Just think of all the churchgoers who could ensure their cellphone ringers are turned off on Sunday mornings or when the church’s location is sensed.

Ringdroid: Make ringtones from your own songs by adjusting bars to mark the start and end of each ringtone. Hitting Save automatically keeps the ringtone, labeled with the song’s name by default, for use on the phone.

Video Player: The G1 doesn’t have a built-in way to play videos, and this app does the trick in a clear-cut, reliable way.

Fun

Movie ShowTimes: This lets people use a finger to flick across the G1′s touch screen to page through movie poster images, titles and brief descriptions. Below each movie description, an on-screen button labeled “Showtimes Near You” uses GPS to generate lists of nearby movie times.

Pac-Man: The classic arcade game never gets old. You can move Pac-Man through his maze with one of three methods: tilting the G1 so its accelerometer moves the Pac-Man, swiping with a finger to point Pac-Man in the right direction or using the trackball to move him around the screen. I preferred the trackball.

Cooking Capsules: This program demonstrates food-making without being either too intimidating or too dull and simplified. Though there were only six “capsules” when I tested it, each includes steps for watching (an instructional video), shopping (using an on-screen list of items) and cooking (with numbered instructions on how to cook the food).

Bonsai Blast is a gaming app that’s now available for the G1.

Bonsai Blast: This colorful, Asian-themed game directs people to shoot colorful marbles at other chains of marbles, with a goal of getting three matching marbles lined up beside one another so they’ll disappear.

Krystle II: Turns your G1′s entire screen into a picture of fur that purrs and vibrates as you touch it. There’s no real point, but Krystle II is addictive and strangely comforting during long conference calls.

Frills

Ecorio: This well-intended app aims to track users’ travel carbon footprints in order to make them more responsible for the environment. It asks users to enter things like recent transit routes and carpools and suggests ways to reduce and offset people’s footprints.

Maverick: An IM program that allows people to add scribbles, location data or even photos to active instant-messaging conversations. Maverick signs users into Google Talk and Picasa simultaneously, adding IM images into an auto-generated Picasa album for later viewing.

PicSay: Add word balloons, titles, props and effects to digital photos captured and/or stored on the G1, then send the images via multimedia messaging service or email, or save one as a caller ID.

There are many more G1 apps to try, and developers are expected to keep making them for this new device. As with the iPhone, apps obtained for the G1 from the Android Market enable it to morph into a different device with different tools every day.

– Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

• Email us at mossbergsolution@wsj.com. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: http://walt.allthingsd.com

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