Upgraded and reskinned the IPROMS conference website.

While there is still some polishing to do on the visuals, the overall design will remain as it is. I will need to put new functionality there. At the moment I'm experimenting with a few approaches to importing OOo Impress presentations. That is a challenge which needs to be solved, but I'm still not sure what is optimal. The Open Document standard is a weird beast, I think a weird bad beast. I wish I could use docbook for this purpose, but that is a dream, which won't come true.

After a few longer workdays, finally the first stage of the 4M NOE's website re-design is finished.

It was interesting mainly from the communications point of view. I think I learned some things in that area. Otherwise the website is (somewhat) sectioned into four distinct areas. I really like the idea of having icons for them in the sidebar. From a visual point of view I like the distinct sidebar as well. It clearly separates the visual concerns - content and navigation/utilities.

Fair enough - there is a lot still to do:

Funny that a lot of people don't trust me with details, giving directions, reading a map, though they do trust me to get lost, have accidents, causing random disruptions...

Never mind that. I really loved Berlin. Nice city. West Berlin is civilised, almost tranquil. Stayed in a hotel in Moabit, which apparently attracts turkish, arab, pole, russian dwellers. This probably explains the various ethnic restaurants, cafes and kebab houses. Colourful but still tranquil, as quiet as a city the size of Berlin can get.

East Berlin is another matter. Some special vibe there. You feel the edginess. I almost envy the crowd. Went to an indie club called Rosie's - rough, punk band, bratwurst in the yard, pils, enjoyed it. Reminds me of Denel, there used to be a club like that in Rousse, at some point I almost lived there.

That time of the year. I'm off to Berlin. I have about an hour/hour and a half to finish my presentation for the I*PROMS governing council, update my wifi, update all sources I need on my laptop, charge the batteries.

Then comes Bristol, EasyJet, Berlin. Later verify if it is true that Berlin is the party capital of Europe.

Hope there will be some nice pics.