Should be interesting. Wal-Mart unveils online DVD rental site: Wal-Mart Stores on Tuesday launched an online DVD rental service, the first major competition for Netflix, the Los Gatos company that pioneered the concept.

A day after Intel reported poor earnings, IBM and Apple report poor earnings. If Microsoft reports good earnings tomorrow, something is rotten in Redmond.

Leave it to Microsoft to give lessons in doing it wrong. In on-demand web services: What Microsoft didn’t understand was that a subscription relationship is a two-way commitment. Customers give up their freedom when they enter into a subscription arrangement, and they expect to see the vendor give something back in return.