Friday, December 31

PROZAC & VIOLENCE

British Medical Journal reports it has handed over confidential Eli Lilly documents to the FDA; the papers imply a link between the company’s popular antidepressant Prozac to suicidal and violent behavior. Eli Lilly stock drops $0.68 to $56.82 following release of the news.

The lowdown:

The papers allegedly went “missing” during a product liability suit that took place over 10 years ago against Eli Lilly. The case examined whether Prozac played a role in the shooting deaths of eight people in 1989. The decision in the original suit was changed from a favorable ruling for Eli Lilly to “dismissed as settled with prejudice” when the trial judge discovered the company had made a secret settlement with the plaintiffs. This means the case can be reopened. News of nondisclosure of the company’s Prozac study comes at a time when antidepressants are under pressure. In October, the FDA announced that antidepressants such as Zoloft and Prozac will have to carry a “black box” warning to health care providers to be on the lookout for increased agitation, panic attacks, and aggression among pediatric patients.

Thursday, December 30

PEOPLESOFT EXECS OUSTED

Oracle expedites the departure of PeopleSoft’s top executives by filling their positions from among Oracle’s top ranks. Oracle dismissed PeopleSoft CFO Kevin Parker, co-president W. Phillip Wilmington, chief marketing officer Nanci Caldwell, and senior vice president James Shaughnessy. Details of the severance have not been released.

CFO Kevin Parker, co-president W. Phillip Wilmington, chief marketing officer Nanci Caldwell, and senior vice president James Shaughnessy. Details of the severance have not been released.

The lowdown:

This should clear up any confusion as to why PeopleSoft executives bitterly opposed the Oracle takeover. The news comes little more than a week after PeopleSoft CEO, chairman, and founder David Duffield resigned as CEO and gave up his board seat.

Wednesday, December 29

SP2 WON’T SAVE YOU

Symantec, a security and storage software firm in Cupertino, California, says it has discovered a new Trojan horse virus replicating across the Internet. The virus, named Phel, relies on the user to surf to an Internet site that downloads a seemingly innocuous program onto the user’s machine. The virus then opens the machines to remote manipulation.

The lowdown:

Microsoft got caught with its pants down when a Chinese research firm publicly announced the Windows vulnerability taken advantage of by this virus. Within a week the vulnerability was made public and malicious programmers wrote the virus. Responsible researchers generally tell Microsoft in advance of a public announcement so that the company may program and release a software patch before someone writes a virus. In this case, that didn’t happen.

got caught with its pants down when a Chinese research firm publicly announced the Windows vulnerability taken advantage of by this virus. Within a week the vulnerability was made public and malicious programmers wrote the virus. Responsible researchers generally tell Microsoft in advance of a public announcement so that the company may program and release a software patch before someone writes a virus. In this case, that didn’t happen.

Tuesday, December 28

AYE CARAMBA! PHONE VIRUSES

Two new mobile phone viruses break out on Tuesday. Both viruses are variants on the Cabir virus released in June; they exploit flaws in the Symbian operating system and spread via Bluetooth wireless connections.

The lowdown:

The viruses block legitimate Bluetooth connections and run down the infected phone’s battery. The new variants, named Cabir.H and Cabir.I, spread more rapidly than the original, which would only replicate once each time a phone was turned on. Although the thought of mobile phone worms sounds scary, of the 650 million mobile phones that sell each year, only about 6 million run the Symbian operating system that has this vulnerability.

Monday, December 27

IT ACQUISITION

High-tech research firm Gartner announces it will buy META Group, a consulting firm specializing in information technology, for $162 million in cash.

META Group

The lowdown:

Gartner should have used the money to expand its operations offshore to take advantage of lower wages for white-collar technology experts and analysts. Graduates from the India Institute of Technology can make goofy predictions less expensively than U.S. graduates. As global information companies, such as news agency Reuters, continue to offshore analysis and editing, why wouldn’t Gartner do the same?

Sunday, December 26

TSUNAMI KILLS MORE THAN A HUNDRED THOUSAND

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake rumbled the water off the coast of Sumatra, an island in the Indian Ocean, sending a wall of water racing toward land and over 100,000 people to their deaths.

The lowdown:

The death toll has climbed to a level equivalent to the number of men, women, and children living in Sunnyvale, California. The aftershocks of the underwater earthquake will resonate for decades as large parts of Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka struggle to rebuild. Besides the obvious opportunity for infrastructure upgrade in the affected countries, the magnitude of this disaster may expose the need for better coordination between disparate aid agencies. High tech can’t bring back the dead, but the disaster will drive innovation to help limit casualties in the future.