It is the year 3016 - the remains of a large codebase have been found in Norway

The accu 2010 conference in Oxford has just finished (Tweet #accu2010). Olve Maudal and I were honoured to be speaking at this fantastic event - our joint presentation was called Code Archaeology: Stories from a real codebase. Inspired by James Bach's awesome Towering-Inferno keynote we added a small, somewhat hastily put together, fun-based introduction. It seems to have worked well; "code archaeology" proved a rich vein of humour (the beer and lack of sleep probably helped too).

The real value of our presentation was the main content in part two.

• a detailed look, going back 10 years, at many small changes from a real codebase worked on by developers who care.
• an equally detailed look at the trust-based culture Tandberg strives to maintain, helping them consistently create superb products.

There are some details that have to be confirmed before Olve and I can make part two available and I apologise for jumping the gun earlier. Meanwhile here is Part One.

P.S. Thanks to Anna-Jayne Metcalfe (@annajayne) who tweeted the title of this blog entry and Mark Ridgwell (@credfeto) for the photo.

Accu charity book giveaway

Many thanks to everyone who took a book and contributed. I'm now about 200 books lighter and the house is about half a bookcase lighter too. Thanks also to my son Patrick (he has Aspergers Syndrome) for lending me the safe. Several people also contributed but did not take a book (clearly they also have too many books already) including the famous Henney-Lakos £20 bet winnings. The total raised was £330.20 which will be split equally between Barnados and The Autism Trust.

Many people suggested bringing some of their old books to next years accu conference so we can have an even bigger Charity Book Giveaway, with even more selection. Please contact me if you'd like to contribute - I'll keep a list of bookworms so I can send reminders a few weeks before next years conference.