July 2012

In This Issue

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  • Letter from the Chair

    If you’re at least 30 years old, you’ve already witnessed incredible technological change since you joined the workforce. Just rewind 10 years, and imagine the world in 2002. Think about the flip phone that you thought was so chic.
    Full Article

  • Letter from the Editors

    I have been helping actuaries develop financial models for more than 25 years. Actuaries are very smart and they have to do a lot of heavy data crunching. However, not all of them are equipped with the right knowledge and tools. There are three major challenges that actuaries face in increasing process efficiency.
    Full Article

  • Financial Modelling – Evaluating Spreadsheet complexity

    People often mistake formula length with complexity. Although it’s true that longer formulae are harder to read than shorter formulae that only deal with one part of the problem—there is also the use of multiple functions and levels of parentheses that can have you squinting between the lines.
    Full Article

  • ASC - Actuarial Spreadsheet Chaos

    Do you have the ASC bug? You may ask, “What is ASC?” It is Actuarial Spreadsheet Chaos.
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  • Online Learning Comes of Age

    Various stabs at online education have been made through the years, but it hasn’t been until recently that the full power of technology has been brought to bear.
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  • The R Corner – Aggregate Function

    The aggregate function in R gives you the ability to aggregate your data inside of R instead of having to use exterior software to aggregate it.
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  • How Fast Can You Do Trial and Error?

    When I was a kid, I spent a whole summer trying to solve. The first one (3x3) was easy; it only took me a couple hours.
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  • Articles Needed for CompAct Newsletter

    Your help and participation are needed: Articles, book reviews and other information on technology useful to actuaries are needed!
    Full Article

  • Non-Endorsement

    As editors, we face the decision each quarter of accepting or declining authors' submitted articles, particularly those that describe the solutions their companies' software products offer to actuaries.
    Full Article