Patent ID: 8650261

Claim:
A system with automatically updated reference values, comprising: a processing device configured to execute a software application to generate sizing and cost estimates, the software application employing one or more dynamic data items which change as a function of time; a memory device configured to store a plurality of tables, each table comprising data analogous to data included in a respective external information source from a plurality of external information sources and including the one or more dynamic data items which change as a function of time; and an update mechanism comprising a really simple syndication (RSS) aggregator configured to aggregate data from the plurality of external information sources and update the plurality of tables by: (i) checking each respective external information sources for current values of the one or more dynamic data items for each table via an RSS channel established to automatically download and aggregate updates for each table, wherein the check is triggered by the respective external information sources having new values, and (ii) updating the one or more dynamic data items in each table; wherein the processing device upon execution of the software application employs a most recently updated value for the one or more dynamic data items in a gas and oil program to estimate sizes and costs of gas and oil facilities.