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AOL Updates: Standalone Browser, Search, VoIP
Eric writes "In the face of increasing pressure from the likes of Google and MSN, America Online has opened beta testing for its standalone AOL Browser and Desktop Search to anyone with an AOL or AIM screen name. The AOL Browser beta utilizes Microsoft's Internet Explorer engine (not Firefox's, like Netscape) and integrates the company's Desktop Search client. Unlike Netscape it looks decent from the screenshots and also includes some nifty features like tear-off tabs and zooming." And prostoalex writes "In what could be the biggest VOIP push into US households, AOL will start offering VOIP services, as reported by Light Reading. 28% of online Americans subscribe to dial-up or broadband version of AOL, AOL has 4 million broadband users, and beta testers in the Light Reading article seemed to be pretty happy with the service."
Nothing like trolling in the submission.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Military officials have demoted a female member of a National Guard military police unit for indecent exposure after a mud-wrestling party at the Camp Bucca detention center in Iraq.
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, spokesman for detainee operations at the U.S. Army-run camp, did not release the name of the soldier, who lifted her shirt and showed her chest in photographs taken at the party.
The New York Daily News identified her as Deanna Allen, 19, and Allen's mother, Ladyna Waldrop of Black Mountain, confirmed the identification.
Several photographs of the party printed in the Daily News showed women wrestling in bras and panties in front of a crowd of male soldiers.
After an inquiry, Allen was demoted from specialist to private first class, received a pay cut and was placed on restriction. She is still a guard at the camp, the newspaper said.
Waldrop said her daughter is devastated by the events.
``It was just a thing where she was coerced by a bunch of people, and with all the excitement, she lost her sanity for a moment and that's all it took,'' she said.
``It seems like they're just singling her out,'' Waldrop said. ``She's the one getting all the publicity and punishment, and that's not right.''
The party occurred Oct. 30, as the 160th Military Police Battalion, an Army Reserve Unit from Tallahassee, Fla., prepared to turn over its duties to the Asheville-based 105th Military Police Battalion, Johnson said.
In the course of the transfer of duties, ``some individuals in their exuberance decided to put together a mud-wrestling thing,'' Johnson said Sunday.
Photos of the party were found after the 160th had left Iraq, Johnson said, adding that he understood a soldier had turned over the photos to commanders.
Johnson said it appeared the party was ``primarily put on by troops of the 160th,'' and results of the inquiry were sent to the unit's commander. It wasn't immediately clear if any members of the 160th had been disciplined.
Four or five other members of the 105th who were spectators at the party received counseling, Johnson said.
Johnson said the party was not held within sight of detainees. A scandal involving the separate Abu Ghraib prison erupted last spring when photographs were made public showing soldiers taunting naked Iraqi prisoners.
So, I'm not using Windows too much these days, but looking at that screenshot I couldn't help noticing the ugly-ass fonts on the menus. Is that still par for the course on Windows XP these days? Are Windows users going to have to wait for Avalon before they can get decent fonts on their desktop? I mean, even my ancient Red Hat 9 desktop looks better than that.