And it’ll even run Ubuntu.

Now that I’m back to using Outlook again after a hiatus of a few years, I’m reacquainting myself with its pros and cons. In general, I’m a fan of the program, though there are a few things I’ve always found frustrating, including its spam filtering capabilities (where’s Bayesian logic when you need it?), and the fact that there are only three levels of Task prioritization (I’ve gotten used to five from my years of using the Palm OS). One thing I do like about Outlook is the fact that there are a lot of good plug-ins for it. Gina pointed out an interesting one recently: Bells and Whistles, which lets you customize a range of features, including the way you respond to mails. Another good one, which I’ve just started using, is EZDetach, a custom action that lets you set Outlook to automatically save attachments in specific folders. That’s particularly handy if you get a lot of docs sent to you by colleagues and get tired of constantly having to save them. As part of a filter, you can set it to only save attachments sent from certain addresses or with certain extensions, so you don’t have to worry about inadvertently saving that infected vbs file. Here’s hoping this feature gets included in the final version of Outlook 2007 (it’s not in the beta). If not, it’s good to know third-party developers are out there, filling in the gaps in Microsoft’s products.

Given that I’m a southpaw, I’ve long been frustrated with typical computer pointing devices, which are often—in the name of ergonomics—curved to support the palm of a right-handed user. I know many lefties who have thrown in the towel, and now mouse with their right hands. I’ve refused to do this, and have been on the lookout for the perfect lefty mouse. Logitech’s new left-handed laser mouse, which I recently picked up, comes close, though its curvature isn’t really as pronounced as I’d like. Still, it’s big, chunky and feels good in the (left) hand. And it has one feature that endeared it to me from the moment I installed its drivers: it switches mouse buttons by default, so that the “left” mouse button is actually on the right, where it’s convenient for clicking by a lefty’s index finger. Having had to change the default settings for other mice regularly over the years, this is a nice usability touch, though it will continue to frustrate righties who try to use my computer. (Oh, and I’ve resisted including the same “Rocky Horror” reference in the title of this post that I used when I previewed this mouse for Engadget. I’m still a little bummed that it took 24 hours and 20 comments for anyone to pick that one up!)

After months of hard work, my old boss Jason has finally launched his “digg killer” on AOL’s Netscape.com. And it looks like he’s off to a good start. While the site may borrow its basic premise of allowing users to create and prioritize news items from digg, it goes far beyond its progenitor in functionality and scope. For one thing, Netscape.com has about 30 channels, most of them non-tech related, while digg has built its base solely on tech news (digg promises to add more categories soon, but it may be a case of too little, too late). More importantly, Jason has added a layer of human moderation on top of the community-driven content, providing a level of quality control that should help Netscape.com to avoid some of the “madness of the crowds” that’s reared its head on digg from time to time. With its early message boards, chat rooms and IM service, AOL practically invented online social networking, and has also long been a leader in recognizing that it isn’t technology that gets most consumers excited, it’s content that appeals to them—especially if it’s content they can help create themselves. So, Jason may just have a hit on his hands. No, it won’t kill digg any more than digg killed Slashdot. But digg was going to have a hard time expanding beyond its techie early-adopter base to begin with, and Jason’s just made it that much harder.

I don’t usually get my political news from Popular Photography, but this month’s issue (not yet available online) is an exception. The mag, better known for reviews of cameras, lenses and other gear, has an excellent feature entitled “The War on Photographers,” which outlines how, in the name of fighting terrorism, law enforcement officials at all levels have cracked down on photogs. As the magazine points out, “amateur and professional photographers all over the country are being stopped and harassed with no legal basis.” Shooters have been stopped for everything from trying to snap architectural details of public buildings to taking pics of New York City bridges. One photog even went out of his way to get a permission slip from the NYC police, so he could prove his work was legal. A must-read for anyone who takes pics; go buy the dead-trees version today if you can’t wait to read it online.

Are bloggers journalists? While a recent California court ruling extended the state’s shield law to bloggers, with the judge saying that “we can see no sustainable basis to distinguish petitioners [the online journalists] from the reporters, editors, and publishers who provide news to the public through traditional print and broadcast media,” many bloggers still don’t do a lot of primary reporting, relying mainly on information they get from other web sites and blogs. That’s not surprising, given the nature of blogs (after all, the very first web logs were exactly what the name implies: logs of the poster’s journeys around the web, consisting of little more than links with some explanatory text). However, as Robert Scoble points out, in commenting on the coverage of his impending departure from Microsoft, “bloggers rarely call before writing. It’s something I hope we can change. Call before running the story. It’s what great journalists do.” It’s actually something even mediocre journalists do. I agree with Scoble on this, but there’s also a flip side: many sources aren’t as receptive as he is to calls from bloggers. However, the California ruling provides some hope that this is changing. Now it’s up to the bloggers to respond to that change and start picking up the phone (or at least sending a quick email), before clicking the “Publish” button.