The non-news story of the day:

IBM offers financing deal [CNET News.com]

I got a call from a flak PR professional about this one. It smells of desparation. I've had enough desparation for a while after the “Bizzare but tasty (not)” story on McDonald's. But I guess it worked for GM and Dailmer-Chrysler…oh, no, I forgot, Dailmer-Chrysler reported a 90% drop in net today. And wasn't GM off this quarter, too? Back to desparation again…