Fortune magazine–which never met a list it did not like to make–had a solid group of women tech types on its “50 Most Powerful Women 2009” roster, the annual survey it posted yesterday.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz made the Top Ten this year, clocking in at No. 8.

Other women geek types–many from Silicon Valley–on the list include:

Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox (XRX) at No. 9; IBM (IBM) Global Sales and Distribution SVP Ginni Rometty at No. 11; Oracle (ORCL) President Safra Catz at No. 12; Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) Technology Solutions Group EVP Ann Livermore at No. 13; Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at No. 22; Charlene Begley, president and CEO, GE (GE) Enterprise Solutions at No. 27; Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay (EBAY) Marketplaces at No. 40; HP CFO Cathie Lesjack at No. 42; and, finally, Google (GOOG) Search Products and User Experience VP Marissa Mayer at No. 44.

The conference associated with the Fortune issue, spearheaded by Pattie Sellers, will take place next week, starting Monday, in Carlsbad, Calif.

Fortune is part of Time Inc., which is owned by Time Warner (TWX).

Bartz, Sandberg and others will be interviewed onstage, along with Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) chairman and CEO Warren Buffett.

Will BoomTown be in attendance, with my trusty Flip digital video at the ready? Yes, indeedy, so the lady geeks should beware–and I am talking to you, Sandberg!

Until then, here’s a cable television interview Bartz did today on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” Clocking in at almost 12 minutes, it’s classic Carol, with sassy catchphrases and jokes about being a really tough lady, but with little new news–except for her saying she would have sold to Microsoft (MSFT) when it was offering $33 a share way back when, because she is not “stupid.”

Indeed not.

Here’s the video:

Even in the midst of the economic meltdown, consider these mega-billion-dollar cash hoards of big tech companies:

Microsoft (MSFT): $20.7 billion

Cisco (CSCO): $29.5 billion

Apple (AAPL): $25.6 billion

Intel (INTC): $11.8 billion

Oracle (ORCL): $10.6 billion

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ): $10.2 billion

Google (GOOG): $15.9 billion

Yahoo (YHOO): $3.5 billion

Of this moneybags list, Apple and Google have zero debt, with the others not having much at all to speak of. Better still, all typically generate a whole lot of cash flow quarterly, even in the downturn.

And since very few tech companies like to hand over dividends or buy back much stock–kind of a minor sacrilege in the space since it means they have no innovative new ideas to fund–BoomTown asked a big exec at one of these companies when the buying spree of both public and private companies might begin.

“Like everyone else, we are waiting for the bottom,” said the exec. “So who knows?”

Said another: “No one wants to buy when prices could just keep going down. The trick is to buy before the really great deals out there collapse.”

And, even as some tasty targets are suffering and might need a lifeline, none of them want to necessarily sell out at all-time lows either.

“We will start eating our toner and paper first,” joked one start-up exec, whose company is increasingly strapped for cash, even after a number of cost-cutting moves.

Interestingly, the only standout in the buying game has been Oracle, which has been in bargain-hunting mode, making 10 acquisitions for about $750 million in the last year, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal today.

While this amount is small potatoes to Oracle, which has typically been known for doing huge merger and acquisition deals, it is still some activity in a decidedly inactive space.

Oracle has especially focused on private firms, as the private-equity investing and venture capital has dried up and IPOs are an impossible dream.

And while another well-known M&A addict, Cisco, has recently issued $4 billion in debt to fund more purchases, and Microsoft execs have noted recently that it is a buyer’s market, it seems Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is the only one currently putting his big money where his big mouth is.

So, when do you think tech companies should commence to gobbling too?

With the naming of Oracle (ORCL) President Charles Phillips to President Barack Obama’s 16-Member Economic Recovery Advisory Board a few days ago, another Silicon Valley tech mandarin fell off the list to become America’s first chief technology officer.

The job–which was promised by President Barack Obama during his campaign and underscored when he released a memorandum on transparency and open government that outlined some of the CTO duties the day after he was sworn in–remains unfilled.

In fact, so does the Federal Communications Commission chairman’s post, which insiders said a month ago would go to former IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) exec Julius Genachowski. But he has not been nominated yet.

Both Genachowski and Phillips were on a short list floated in November by The Wall Street Journal for CTO. The third name on it, Level 3 (LVLT) exec Don Gips, has since been named to a high-level White House job.

While the continuing economic crisis has sucked all the oxygen from the room, the Obama administration has still made a lot of promises about tech issues, from improving broadband to making the government more transparent and digital.

So, who is getting the job as head geek?

Could it be well-known entrepreneur Mitch Kapor? Google (GOOG) guru-in-resident and Internet father Vint Cerf? Or some other tech-savvy Silicon Valley figure?

BoomTown is, of course, rooting for Steve “Woz” Wozniak. Once he wins “Dancing With the Stars” this season, he will be the only nerd capable of the two-stepping one needs to survive in Washington.

Post new guesses in comments below.

And, until someone is appointed to fix the nation’s computers, here is the Jan. 21 memo Obama released about some of the tasks ahead for America’s CTO:

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

BARACK OBAMA

[Photo of the t-shirt from ThinkGeek.]

If Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang thought Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was scary, meet persnickety investor Carl Icahn.

According to CNBC, which was doubtlessly leaked the threat by the clever billionaire to test the waters, he has bought as much as 50 million shares in the troubled Internet company as part of a potential proxy fight.

Following the CNBC report, The Wall Street Journal reported that Icahn was leaning toward launching the proxy fight, using that 4% stake he has apparently amassed since the Yahoo-Microsoft tussle ended May 3.

Another activist investor, The Journal said, also thinking of getting involved was Firebrand Partners’ Scott Galloway, also known as the thorn in the New York Times’s side. (His SuperPoking inexplicably did nab him a board seat.)

Oh, dear.

But sharks do come when there is blood in the water, of course, as there has been since Microsoft (MSFT) abandoned its takeover quest for Yahoo (YHOO) after repeated rejection from Yang and its board.

It is not clear what Microsoft will do.

Icahn’s efforts seems clever, using similar tactics as he did in the BEA Systems-Oracle fight, trying to get just a few board seats to force Yahoo to sell to Microsoft.

But he better hurry–anyone wishing to wage such a proxy battle has until Thursday to do so to get on the slate at Yahoo’s July board meeting.

In honor of the Icahn entry, here’s an anticipatory video for Yang for the meeting, so he knows just what’s coming:

Corporate maneuverings are the stuff of our days and nights here at AllThingsD.com. So SAP’s retreat today from its hard line on fighting a copyright infringement suit brought by Oracle caught the eye of Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski (right), who found it curious that Henning Kagermann, SAP’s chief executive, backed down so suddenly after vowing “We have no intention to settle.” You can read about the probable reasons for the reversal in John’s post or by watching his video, which can also be viewed below.

Google’s decision to buy GrandCentral Communications proved interesting to John on a couple of levels, not the least of which might be the search engine leader’s interest in controlling your voice data.

And he was intrigued as well by the Russian government’s gambit of closing down AllofMP3.com, a digital music storefront that sold songs for pennies due to a loophole in Russian law, while opening a similar service.

Finally, John found a certain irony in the news that Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim had overtaken Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates as the world’s richest man–a crown that sat uneasily on the head of the software billionaire, by his own admission.

Posted by Associate Editor John Sullivan.