NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - An old tech rivalry, predictable car stats and more about the coal mine tragedy has my attention this morning ...

MICROSOFT: Okay so Bill Gates is going up against his old rival again, that would be Steve Jobs. Gates rolled out a new online music service called 'Urge,' which of course would compete directly against his nemesis' iTunes service. What up with that? Let's start with the name. Urge. It's lame. (Let me tell you what I really think...) Next, Urge is a subscription model. Me no like. Also, Gates debuted Urge with a huge music star, that would be.....JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE??? Puh-lease! So it's Gates & Timberlake versus Jobs & Bono. From the department of no contest, right? Finally, I'll go back to my old mantra here, MSFT has never made any real money doing anything but making and selling operating and application software. Period. Who knows how much money MSFT will spend on Urge (to purge), but they should take that money instead and pay it out to shareholders! Stop the insanity. Don't count on MSFT (Research) moving on Urge. Except maybe down.

CARS: "Here in my car, I can go very far..." (Sorry, just singing some Gary Numan...) The numbers are out for December and the year and -- surprise surprise surprise (Gomer Pyle) -- they are very cruddy (except for Chrysler (Research)---more on that in a second...) Ford (Research) and GM (Research) off 10 percent and 9 percent respectively (what's respect got to do with it?) in December and 4.3 percent and 5 percent for the year. Chrysler's sales actually climbed 5 percent last year, thanks to hot cars like the dope, phat Baby Bentley 300c. Meanwhile, insult to injury: Toyota up 17 percent last year. 17 percent! Other notes: Chevy beats Ford for top honors as car brand in U.S.---not a big deal. But GM did make some strides in China, beating out VW as the #1 import there. Kewl! But you know what? Being the number one import in China ain't enough for the world's biggest automaker. The company will likely lose that crown this year. Look for these stocks to be under pressure.

ICO: Stock actually rose slightly yesterday even given the Sago mine disaster. (International Coal Group owns the mine.) Investors believe that the tragedy from a financial standpoint isn't that devastating. Hmmm. Yes the loss of business form Sago isn't that great, but what about litigation from the miners' families? The company has started a relief fund for the families with $2 million. You can call 212-826-2174 to contribute. Question: How much money has Wilbur Ross, the New York billionaire behind ICO (Research) personally put in the fund? $0? I think it will take more than $2 million to make amends and Wilbur could put up some of his own coin!

Loose Change: I hear that Jide Zietlin, a big cheese banker at Goldman Sachs, is leaving that firm....Also congrats to the Texas Longhorns. Yee-haw! Classic comment from Matt Leinhart, quarterback of the University of Spoiled Children's football team:"I still think we're a better football team." Ah, no Matt actually not! .....Finally, check out this Gates/Timberlake link.

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Email Andy Serwer at serwer@fortunemail.com.