OK, A Few Non-Spoilers :)

[spudzeppelin]

The program in question is named "selfGOL". That much, and a brief description of what it does, are in the conference documentation.

I'd recommend (re-)reading Appendix A ("Hacker Folklore") in the Jargon File before going, if you haven't read it recently.

It has little to do with "extreme programming" in the sense it is used in the books "Extreme Programming Explained" et al.

Spud Zeppelin * [e-mail]