On the dangers of our reliance on opaque algorithms

Kevin Slavin offers an illuminating TED presentation on the implications of our reliance on computer algorithms whose complexity has reached the point of being opaque to human understanding.

Update to Currency Quoter utility

The latest update to the Currency Quoter utility available on this site, version 0.04a, fixes an issue which prevented currency data from being downloaded under some circumstances. It also introduces a parameter allowing you to control the number of months' worth of data that are taken in producing the forecast value of a given currency exchange. You can currently configure this between 1 and 12 months. The default is 3 months, which appears to be suitable in most cases. However, you may wish to take a greater period, for example when looking at a longer-range forecats of the value of a currency that has had a particular trend over a longer time.

Please report any issues with this program bugs@javamex.com