Short Take: AOL out for about an hour

was down for more than an hour Thursday afternoon, from 1:40 to 2:54 p.m. PT. During that time, members were unable to log on, although most people who were on the system were able to stay on, according to AOL spokesman Rich d'Amato. D'Amato attributed the outage to a "software and technical issue having to do with the link between data centers in Reston and Vienna, Virginia." While almost all Internet providers experience outages, AOL is in an awkward position with regards to blackouts because it is the world's largest online service.