Change the Mac's way of dealing with Home and End

Finally, if you're a Windows user and the Mac's way of dealing with Home and End really bugs you, here's a tip from Aaron Adams -

To change the Mac's home and end keys to behave like Windows, create a text file named /Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict (if the folder doesn't exist, go ahead and create it) and add these lines: /* Home/End keys like Windows */
{
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /*home*/
"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; /*end*/
"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /*shift + home*/
"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /*shift + end*/
}
Logout and login, and the home and end keys will work like Windows.

FT.com / Business Life - Career transitions: Get used to your own company

FT.com / Business Life - Career transitions: Get used to your own company: "Career transitions: Get used to your own company"

By Alison Maitland

Published: January 23 2007 17:57 | Last updated: January 23 2007 17:57

Tony Shearer, former chief executive of Singer & Friedlander, the investment bank, doesn’t have secretarial and IT support these days – nor does he have colleagues or a chauffeur. Since quitting just over a year ago following the takeover by Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank, he has pursued an independent career as a multiple non-executive director.

“It’s a shame not to have the car any more, but it’s not a crucial issue,” says Mr Shearer, speaking by mobile from his London garden on a blustery January day.

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For him, losing the support that accompanied the big corporate job was nothing compared with making the mental shift from top corporate dog to portfolio worker.

“The biggest thing, undoubtedly, was feeling that I’d achieved everything for which I’d been training for 35 years – to become chief executive of an organisation of the size of Singer, an environment and a role I enjoyed – and then suddenly realising this wasn’t for me any longer,” he says.

Mr Shearer, who had only recently stepped up to chief executive from being chief operating officer and finance director, stayed to see the handover through. But he did not want to run part of a larger organisation and left at the age of 57 after less than a year at the helm.

“I thought quite hard about trying to get another chief executive role in that field but that wasn’t going to come,” he says. “You’ve got to change direction. It took me six to nine months. It wasn’t painful, but it required a lot of thinking through. A lot of people came to me and said: ‘Will you do this or that role?’ The market was telling me there was a role for me in the portfolio route.”

Life outside the corporate duvet can be pleasant or painful, depending on whether executives choose the timing of their departure or are forced out. But either way, there are common experiences.

“People think what you’ll miss is the physical infrastructure of having staff around you, or IT systems,” says Peter Thomson, director of the Future Work Forum at Henley Management College, which studies changing work patterns. “But what’s often missing is the human ‘belonging’ to something. People go from being part of an organisation and having a role to being just an individual running a little business of some sort. That’s quite difficult.”

Mr Thomson predicts that more people will make the move, pointing to rising use of online business networks such as Ecademy as evidence of the need for mutual support among independent professionals.

At the same time, he expects that the shock of leaving corporate life will diminish for employees increasingly used to “networked” organisations and remote working. Internet chat services such as MSN and Skype already provide “an electronic substitute for being in an office”, he says.

Ed Williams certainly has no regrets about taking long-planned early retirement at 50 from Marks and Spencer – where his last senior role was head of corporate responsibility – and becoming a consultant. But he does miss some aspects of office life: the luxury of IT support when his computer breaks down, having a PA to manage his diary (he writes his own diary entries in pencil and has already used up 15 erasers), and being able to bounce ideas off colleagues spontaneously.

In his experience, however, these are more than outweighed by the flexibility and variety of his work. “Having choice is absolutely fantastic – choice of what work I do, who for, when I do it. Being in that position is a privilege,” says Mr Williams, who left 18 months ago after a 25-year career with M&S. As a consultant in corporate responsibility and leadership, he says: “I’m now paid to be as truthful as I feel I ought to be.”

He tries to organise his time so that meetings with clients do not start before 10am or end after 4pm, so that he can avoid the rush-hour commute. He walks his dog most mornings but works at weekends if he feels like it. “In a corporate environment that’s hard to do,” he says. “I’ve always felt the Monday to Friday work week is artificial.”

Mr Williams is now helping to plan a seminar programme for 45- to 60-year-olds going through similar career transitions. “There seems to be a huge need for people to take stock of who they’ve been and where they want to go and to generate a new enthusiasm for the future,” he says.

Lawry Bickford, 48, another company-man-turned-portfolio-worker, gives talks to senior executives making the same move at workshops at DBM, a human resources consultancy. His 2003 departure from ExxonMobil, following the sale of Mobil Gas, where he was business services manager, took him down an unexpected path.

“I thought all it would take was to write a CV, apply for jobs and get another job like the one I had before,” he says.

But it became clear that he should be thinking more broadly about his future. “When I went to my first outplacement session, the scales fell from my eyes. I realised it was about standing back and looking at the whole forest rather than staring at the bark on a particular tree.”

He ended up as an oil and gas consultant, advising clients on which fields to buy, sell or develop. “I really enjoyed going back on my own terms,” he says. “The challenge and excitement were there, which had been rather smothered by the corporate layers of bureaucracy. I work for companies, so I get the fix I need from big organisations, and a sense of purposefulness, without becoming trapped as a cog in the corporation.”

For the unstoppable Mr Shearer, there are both drawbacks and benefits to his new life. “The biggest difference is that I’m more likely to travel to people than [have] people travel to me, and that is more time-consuming. Having a BlackBerry is absolutely invaluable.”

He says he is lucky to have four very different roles to play, including chairing Uruguay Mineral Exploration, a gold mining company, and Caxton, a foreign exchange business. A diehard Elvis fan, he also has slightly more time for trips to Graceland. “I’m probably working five days a week rather than six to six and a half,” he says. “I like travelling, and I can go to Memphis more often.”

Surviving the move to a portfolio life

First, be sure this is the right move for you. Some people feel they have “had enough” of the corporate world, says Stuart Lindenfield, head of transition services at Reed Consulting, a provider of human resources advice.

“That could be just a reaction to an event and they might not be suited to going and doing their own thing.”

Mr Lindenfield advises people to take time to assess what they really want out of their career and life. He says this may be the first occasion that even very senior people have stood back and asked themselves such questions.

Some need to regain their self-confidence after redundancy, especially if they are coping with other big changes.

One tool he uses is the eight “career anchors” devised by Edgar Schein, of the MIT Sloan School of Management, which determine what motivates people in their working lives. If their main anchor is security or stability, they should stay inside the corporate blanket. If they are driven by a desire for autonomy, challenge, entrepreneurialism or more choice of lifestyle, they will be better suited to going
it alone.

Lawry Bickford, a former ExxonMobil executive who now has a portfolio career, advises people to ask close friends and family for an honest opinion of their attributes and what they might do next, and to investigate possible opportunities through their extended business and personal networks.

He says he gained a lot from reading Charles Handy’s The Empty Raincoat and The Elephant and the Flea. Last, but not least, he advises people to “do a few sums” and work out how much they really need. “Some people say you can never have too much money. You can, actually.”

Antennen-Umbausets - Fritz!Box

Antennen-Umbausets - Fritz!Box: "Antennen-Umbausets
From Fritz!Box

Saxonia NETWORKS (http://www.wifistore.de)

* Wir haben ein Umbauset bestehend aus 5,5dBi Antenne und Pigtail (Verbindungskabel) um die Sendeleistung zu verbessern.

www.go-e-shop.de

* Ein Antennen-Umbaukit (Pigtail, Pigtail-Kunststoffbuchse und 5 dbi Antenne) mit Umbauanleitung (http://www.boxtrack.de/anlei/fbf_umbau.pdf) berücksichtigt auch Boxen bei denen ein Kondensator die Verwendung des Umbausets verhinderte. Aktueller Preis am 07.04.2006: 25,80€ (zzgl. 5€ Versand).

NRG Systems GmbH (http://stores.ebay.de/NRG-Systems-GmbH_Wireless-LAN)

* Über eBay wird ein Umbauset mit einer 5dBi Antenne und Pigtail (gerade Kabelführung, passend für die meisten Boxen) schon ab 12,90€ inkl. MwSt. und zzgl. Versand angeboten."

Main Page - Fritz!Box

Main Page - Fritz!Box: "Dieses Wiki dient dazu, Informationen über den Aufbau der AVM (http://www.avm.de) Fritz!Box (http://www.avm.de/de/Produkte/FRITZBox/index.html) Familie zu sammeln und Interessierten zur Verfügung zu stellen. Jeder, der daran mitarbeiten möchte, ist herzlich dazu eingeladen. Bitte registriert euch bei Interesse, dann könnt ihr Seiten bearbeiten. Ich gehe davon aus, dass es noch nicht nötig ist, Regeln für die Teilnahme aufzustellen, sondern dass das auch so kooperativ funktioniert.

Derzeit enthält dieses Wiki 69 Artikel.

Have more fun with Fritz!Box products (http://www.avm.de/de/Produkte/FRITZBox/index.html)!"

Corporate Development Principal - London

Corporate Development Principal - London: "

Corporate Development Principal - London

Position based in London, UK.

Google is looking for a highly-experienced business professional to join our corporate development team. In this role, you will identify and evaluate acquisition opportunities across existing and future market opportunities, drive management team decisions, lead deal execution, and help manage post-acquisition integration and performance evaluation. Our ideal candidate is a top performer with proven deal management and leadership skills.

Responsibilities:

* Identify and evaluate acquisition opportunities.
* Drive management team decisions.
* Lead deal execution.
* Manage post-acquisition integration.

Requirements:

* Bachelor's degree required. MBA or other advanced degree preferred.
* 7+ years corporate development, venture capital, private equity or investment banking experience in the technology industry (Internet, communications or e-commerce experience is a plus).
* Strong quantitative and qualitative analytical ability.
* Excellent oral and written communication skills.
* Demonstrated track record of leading deals.

For immediate consideration, please send a text (ASCII) or HTML version of your resume to jobs@google.com. Important: The subject field of your email must include"

Product Manager, Europe - London

Product Manager, Europe - London: "Product Manager, Europe - London

This position is located in London, UK.

As a European Product Manager at Google, you bridge the needs of our customers (users, advertisers and partners) and the creativity of our engineering teams. You combine outstanding product vision with the hands-on skills to work with engineers and deliver new products and features quickly to markets across Europe, Middle-East, and Africa.

You will be responsible for the product from inception to launch and will drive a cross-functional team to ensure Google's products are innovative and bring new possibilities to users, advertisers, and partners. You will own one or a number of our products on web, mobile, or other platforms – for example; Google Search, Google Maps, Google Mail and Google Video

Responsibilities:

* Identifying market opportunities and defining product vision and strategy.
* Understanding customer needs and gathering product requirements.
* Developing new products and enhancing existing products.
* Launch products.

Requirements:

* Undergraduate Degree in Computer Science or related field required - Masters or PhD preferred
* MBA degree highly regarded
* End to end Product Management experience of software / web technologies
* Demonstrable experien"

Mountain Bike Instruction - Customer Feedback

Mountain Bike Instruction - Customer Feedback: "Mountain Bike Instruction
'Setting the Standards in Mountain Bike Training'

Review of Mountain Bike Instruction, appeared in Outdoor Enthusiast Magazine www.oe-mag.com.
Volume 1. Issue 4. June 2005
Cracking the Skills Barrier

Just because you know how to ride a bike doesn't mean you automatically have the skills to handle a mountain bike. Veteran Biker, Jon Sparks, swallowed his pride and signed up for some expert guidance.

I don't like to admit weakness, especially on a bike. I've been riding for most of my life - touring, commuting, a fair ammount of club-level racing - and I like to think I know what I'm doing. However, as a recent convert to mountain biking, I'd gradually been forced to admit that I didn't have the skills to take me where I wanted to go.

It was time"