Snap Shot: Mark Thorogood

VITALS: Born and raised in Queens and Brooklyn, N.Y. Undergraduate: Coker College, South Carolina, B.S. Operations management. Graduate: Florida Institute of Technology, M.S., system management.

MILITARY: U.S. Army, 12 years. Enlisted as a Private (E1), and rose to Chief Warrant Officer. Director of LAAWS (Legal Automation Army Wide System), responsible for the Army Judge Advocate General's worldwide network. Distinguished Leadership Award. Instructor of the Year, Fort Jackson.

A.K.A. My closest friends call me "Sparky." CURRENT POST: Manager, application services, McDermott, Will & Emery. It has 2000 staff, including 800 attorneys, and 11 offices: Boston; Chicago; Los Angeles, Irvine, and Menlo Park, Calif.; Miami, New York, Washington, D.C., London, Moscow, and Vilnius (Lithuania). BAR ACTIVITIES: Chair, Internet Technology Track, LawNet.

FIRM TECHNOLOGY: Dell computers and laptops. Microsoft Word for word processing; Lotus Notes for e-mail and calendaring. More than 100 servers, all Compaq. Novell 5.x for file and print services; Windows NT 4.0 for application services. We are moving toward a pure NT environment. We plan to migrate to Windows 2000 late next year.

LAPTOP: Dell Inspiron 3500 laptop, 256 MB RAM (with dual turbo exhaust). My wife Michelle insists on a laptop so we can browse the 'Net from the comfort of our living room couch.

HOME ISP: I have been a faithful AOL fan for about six years now.

COMPUTER GAME: Chessmaster 5000. PAGER: Motorola Flex 929 (pretty standard).

APPOINTMENT I NEVER MISS: Dentist.

PDA: Palm VII.

PDA SOFTWARE: EasySynch for Lotus Notes. It allows me to replicate my e-mail.

CELL PHONE: Nextel.

FAVORITE NON-TECH MAGAZINES: Without a doubt, People is my favorite. It gives me a sense of balance. It is my portal into what the "normals" do.

LETTERMAN OR LENO: David Letterman is the king of late night T.V.

FAVORITE SEARCH ENGINE: www.yahoo.com

FAVORITE TV SHOW: The Simpsons.

CARS: Saturn LS1. Pontiac Grand Am.

LAST BOOKS READ: Leading Change, by John P. Kotter. Professional SQL Programming, by Rob Vieira.

WATCH: Citizen Quartz Digital.

MOST IMPORTANT TECH TREND: "Web-top" desktops that are entirely browser-based. They will reduce support costs and provide access to data from any where at any time.

TECH ACCOMPLISHMENT IN THE LAST YEAR: Performing a WANGectomy. We successfully removed our last WANG mainframe. FAVORITE BOOKMARKS: www.dictionary.com (I am trying to become a better speller). www.smdn.microsoft.com and www.notes.net (I use these for developing applications).

WHERE WOULD WE FIND YOU ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON? I reserve Saturdays for my family. My wife and our three children would most likely be walking along Lake Michigan watching the boats go by.

LAST VACATION: Niagra Falls.

FAVORITE QUOTES: "You don't have to be great to get started, but you must get started in order to be great." -- Les Brown

"The two greatest inhibitors to success are perfectionism and procrastination." --Anonymous