And now for some good news... How to fall in love with email all over again

Image: CNET/CBS Interactive

You'll struggle to find someone in this day and age who loves email. We're talking truly loving it.

Because for the vast majority, we're stuck using one product, day in and day out, either Outlook or Gmail, or some antiquated, legacy text-based email system that nobody recognizes and hasn't been updated in years. It's a drag, and we all know it.

One ZDNet writer, David Gewirtz, has used Outlook for more than a decade  — since before Windows XP was brought into the world. 

He had, like most power users, unique requirements. He explained in a post earlier this year: "My problem wasn't managing my old email. My problem was managing the extreme flow of new email."

He wanted to stop hating Outlook and learn to love it again, but just couldn't. The love story was over. 

When a door closes, another door opens — as is often the case, goes the saying.

After a week's worth of work, he finally made the switch from Microsoft's Exchange server and Outlook desktop combo to Gmail's web-based interface. It wasn't a death strike to Microsoft — Gewirtz remains a long-time user of PowerPoint, and other Office desktop apps. 

As for Gewirtz? He's probably the only person you'll find in this day and age who, despite the agony and stress of switching providers, actually loves email again.

Read more: Why I bit the bullet and finally switched from Outlook to Gmail

What's the best news you've heard all year? We're counting down our favorite, uplifting, good news stories of 2014. Next one lands tomorrow, 8am ET (1pm GMT).

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Top U.S. general urges Congress to think again on defense cuts

By Adrian Croft

WIESBADEN Germany Wed Sep 17, 2014 11:41am EDT

U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno (L) speaks during a meeting with Fang Fenghui (not pictured), Chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, at Bayi Building in Beijing February 21, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Lintao Zhang/Pool

WIESBADEN Germany (Reuters) - Congress should look hard at whether to continue automatic budget cuts that weaken the U.S. military at a time when security around the world is deteriorating, a top U.S. general said on Wednesday.

The rapid advance of Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria and Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region has fueled calls by current and former military chiefs and the U.S. defense industry for a rethink of the hundreds of billions of dollars in automatic cuts, known as "sequestration".

"With a deteriorating security situation around the world, I think it's time to ... really take a hard look at whether we should continue with sequestration," Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno told a small group of reporters at the Conference of European Armies in Wiesbaden, Germany.

"I think that is a debate that it is absolutely essential to have over the next year," he said. "If sequestration occurs we are going to have to continue to downsize the army. We are going to have to decide where we do it," he said.

It was difficult to make defense cuts affecting the continental United States because "Congress doesn’t like that either," he said.

The Pentagon has been struggling to implement nearly $1 trillion in cuts to projected spending over a decade as required by a 2011 law.

The law required $487 billion in direct cuts to defense spread over a decade, plus another $500 billion in automatic, across-the-board reductions that would not take place if Congress negotiated an alternative way to curb spending.

Congress failed to reach a deal and the across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, went into effect for the first time last year.

The United States currently has some 67,000 military personnel in Europe, a sharp cut from a peak of around 400,000 during the Cold War, and the U.S. Army has been closing and consolidating garrisons in Germany.

More across-the-board reductions could mean more cuts to the U.S. military in Europe.

"Sequestration has been a challenge. It will continue to be if it stays on the books and is not changed by our Congress," Lieutenant-General Donald Campbell, commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, told reporters.

"We believe that the structure here in Europe is about right. Certainly from an army perspective I believe it is."

Military chiefs faced "some decisions if sequestration stays on the table regarding force structure in the army, and in Europe," Campbell said.

(Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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