AOL moves closer to ad epicenter
NEW YORK -- With little fanfare, AOL began occupying new headquarters in New York this week to bring itself closer to the heart of the media and advertising industry as it transforms itself into an ad-supported business.
About 300 senior executives and content producers, many already located elsewhere in the city, were the first to move to the new digs at 770 Broadway in Greenwich Village, once home to the grand Wanamaker department store.
AOL's ad sales representatives are to follow at a still-unspecified date.
AOL is initially occupying two floors of the 15-story building a couple miles from Time Warner's headquarters. The location was chosen in part for its proximity to ad agencies and other firms with which AOL wants more business.
Many senior executives will keep second offices at AOL's former headquarters in Dulles, Va. Although AOL has laid off thousands of employees, few of those dismissals result from the headquarters move, announced in September.
AOL plans to maintain a large presence in Dulles, which became its headquarters in 1996.
Once an Internet powerhouse, AOL has seen subscription revenue plummet as Americans switch from dial-up to broadband access. It has slowed its revenue decline with advertising dollars, but its growth in advertising too has been slowing in recent quarters.
Army to use portable polygraphs
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- U.S. Army soldiers in Afghanistan are getting portable detectors aimed to help determine whether suspects in roadside bombings or people looking to enter military bases are telling the truth about their intentions.
The devices, which each cost $7,500, are not full-blown polygraphs -- or lie detectors, said Donald Krapohl, special assistant to the director at the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment, the Fort Jackson-based agency that helped design the devices.
The Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening Systems will be among several tests the Army uses to decide if a person is truthful, Krapohl said. He said the Army has bought 94.
The use of the devices was first reported by MSNBC.com, which also raised questions about the Army's test of their reliability.
Museum to open robotics exhibit
PITTSBURGH -- How robots act, think and sense the world around them will be the focus of an upcoming exhibit billed as the largest and most comprehensive nationwide on robotics.
The Carnegie Science Center plans to open a robotics exhibition next spring called roboworld that will encompass an array of mechanized devices, including a welder that's been modified to pick up basketballs and shoot them through a hoop.
The $3.4 million permanent display -- similar to a traveling exhibition that's been on the road since 1996 -- will emphasize three aspects of artificial robotic behavior: sensing, thinking and acting. And it will include members of the Carnegie Mellon University Robot Hall of Fame.
People too often use same password
SAN FRANCISCO -- Using the same password for multiple Web pages is the Internet-era equivalent of having the same key for your home, car and bank safe-deposit box.
Even though a universal password is like gold for cyber crooks because they can use it to steal all of a person's sensitive data at once, nearly half the Internet users queried in a new survey said they use just one password for all their online accounts.
At the same time, 88 percent of the 800 people interviewed in the U.S. and the U.K. for the survey by the Accenture consultancy, which is to be released Thursday, said personal irresponsibility is the key cause of identity theft and fraud.
Researchers say the findings suggest that many users underestimate the growing threat from organized cyber criminals who can reap big profits from selling stolen identities.