Money for Nothing and the Clicks for Free

• It's official. AOL content is free.  Hoping to make it up on volume.   Click volume, that is.  Lets cue up Dire Straits and let Mark Knopfler shred that riff.  Time Warner Inc. on Wednesday said its AOL unit will no longer charge high-speed Internet users for e-mail and other Web services in a gambit to attract more viewers and boost online advertising.  I haven't used AOL in eons, but will this make me look at it instead of Yahoo or Google?  Probably.  I can now click an AOL link and read it.  I used to not even bother.  Plenty of competition out there, and I think what this does is divert more eyes from other sites.  Maybe this is bad for Yahoo and Google.  
• Good news for the next Valentines Day gift, fellas.  Technology is a girl's best friend.  Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend, according to a new U.S. study that found three of four women would prefer a new plasma TV to a diamond necklace.  Nothing says I love you like a big screen plasma TV and annual subscriptions to the NFL/NBA/MLB sports packages, guys.  Remember to throw in a Tivo so she can record Oprah and watch it on her time.
• I still don't think we'll see much of a change out of Cuba now that Fidel Castro has removed himself from power.  He basically looted the people in Cuba, and deprived them of freedom and opportunity.  With one dictator gone, another will come in and continue the stranglehold on Cuba.  Maybe this does give us an opportunity to hope for democratic reforms in our neighbor.  More on Cuba from the WSJ.  If Fidel Castro is unable to return as president and Communist Party head, it is possible though improbable that Cuba will turn fairly quickly toward democracy, as Eastern Europe did after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Many Cuba analysts believe Raúl Castro would continue the Western Hemisphere's sole communist regime, and would rely heavily on money from Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez to prop up the economy and tamp down dissent.
• Off to another meeting...