We must mention the Predictable Software Design Conference that will be held in Amsterdam on 22nd Sept 04. It’s being sponsored by the IEE and Embedded System Engineering, but what interested us was that they had an interesting range of presentations. As well as the dry-sounding “CSP: from Theory to Practice”, and “Metrics-based multi-site project management, predicting start-of-production within an automotive environment”, Dr. Holenderski from Philips Research is asking “Can formal methods be introduced to the industry withouth help from Harry Potter?” Who said the Dutch have no sense of humour?