Swiss corporate bonuses
Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung has published a list of the managers who received the highest bonus payments for 2009. Here is the top 10:
- Daniel Vasella, Chairman of Novartis, CHF 42 million
- Franz Humer, Chairman of Roche, CHF 16.4 million
- Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche, CHF 12.1 million
- James Schiro, former CEO of Zurich Financial, CHF 11.8 million
- Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestle, CHF 10 million
- Johannes de Gier, CEO of GAM Holding, CHF 7.8 million
- Peter Brabeck, Chairman of Nestle, CHF 7.5 million
- Alfred Schindler, Chairman of Schindler, CHF 7.4 million
- Hansjoerg Wyss, Chairman of Synthes, CHF 6.7 million
- Patrick de Maeseneire, former CEO of Barry Callebaut, CHF 6.2 million
3 good estate agents in Berlin
When buying an apartment in Berlin it’s important to deal with the right kind of estate agent: honest, knowledgeable, reliable, friendly. I’ve had the fortune of meeting mostly good estate agents in Berlin, but of course some are still better than others. Here are three that I can recommend without hesitation, even if I haven’t actually bought a property through them.
_ Ulrike Stübner at ImmoSky Berlin always has interesting apartments you won’t find advertised by others. She focuses on the north, particularly Tiergarten, Mitte, Wedding, Prenzlauer Berg.
_ Renate Schwarz seems to specialize in smaller apartments in the Tiergarten/Wedding area. Some very neat little 1930s flats in Bauhaus-style blocs. Tel.: +49 – 30 – 428 007 08
_ Britta Jakobs and her husband are a kind of knowledgeable couple who seem to cover Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg, Wedding. www.jakobsinfo.de
Browser choice in brief
Have you received a Windows Update asking which Internet browser you would like to install as default? Here’s a brief description of the top 5:
_ Internet Explorer: The market leader, this browser is unfortunately still very clunky despite some innovations in recent years. 4/10
_ Firefox: The challenger, this browser is a serious threat to IE because of its modular features allowing all kinds of plug-ins including the killer application “Ad Blocker”. 7/10
_ Google Chrome: The newby, this one is light and fast but lacks some of the more sophisticated functions of Firefox. Best for low-power machines such as netbooks. 6/10
_ Opera: The afficionado’s choice. Opera has some unique features and a dedicated following, but sometimes trips up on key browser features, though through no fault of its own. 6/10
_ Safari: An Apple product and therefore flashy but restrictive. 4/10
Buffalo Linkstation streaming to Revo Ikon
I had some trouble getting my Buffalo Linkstation’s UPnP (DNLA) server to recognize the Revo Ikon internet radio, but after some fiddling with the settings the following seemed to work. It required quite a few restarts of both the Revo radio and the Buffalo NAS.
Embargoes – story of my life
(Video by Steve O’Hear of http://www.last100.com . Thanks a million for the laugh, Steve.)
Berlin Buzz
Tiger Woods “news”
Journalist or Blogger?
Nestle clearly thinks the line between journalists and bloggers is blurring. What do you think? What does it say that this screengrab was posted on a blog?
Sunday Avalanche
Top 5 – Music Software
- Media Monkey: Free! Better than WinAmp, iTunes and Foobar. A media player, file and iPod manager all in one.
- Total Recorder: From $17.95. Record any sound that comes out of your computer. Very useful for recording streaming audio.
- Audacity: Free! Sophisticated tool to edit audio files.
- Shazam: Free! Best installed on a mobile phone. Tells you what that track you’re hearing is called.
- Real Alternative: Free! Play streaming Real Audio files without having to use Real Player.
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About
Musings of a wire reporter in Geneva. Feel free to contact me with your questions about journalism, Switzerland, or anything else I write about on this blog.
