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THE WARREN-WATCHUNG CONNECTION
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
DON‘T RISK LOSING PRICELESS MEMORIES! Bedminster, NJ | 908-367-2001 | www.archivalcompany.com VIDEO TO DVD & DIGITAL FORMATS: VHS, VHS-C, H I 8, HDV, D IGITAL 8, M INI DV, U-M ATIC 3/4”, B ETA SP, SX, S UPER 8/8 MM , 16 MM CREATE YOUR DIGITAL LEGACY! Convert your old media to a digital format and enjoy your family videos on your TV. No DVDs required! 15% OFF WITH THIS AD Visit our Connection On-Line ad to view our video The CONNECTIONS ! " # !"# !"# ! " # $ $ %& "' ! $ % $ #& With this coupon. Not valid on prior purchases, special orders or church supplies. Expires 11/30/15. 10% OFF Any Single Item Mon-Fri 11am-6pm; Sat 10am-4pm Religious Gifts, Books, Cards, Music, Jewelry, Statuary, Baptismal Gowns, Church Supplies/Vestments & much more CELEBRATING OUR 908.722.4788 44 WEST SOMERSET STREET • RARITAN I started my career as a computer programmer over forty years ago. My first assignment involved what we now call ATM’s. When they first appeared outside of banks in the early 70’s, they were called Automat- ed Tellers. My computer programs checked account balances to see how much cash could be withdrawn by a customer standing at an ATM. To give you some perspective, a computer wrist watch you may have seen, or even wear, has about 50,000 times more power than the computer I worked on back then (which incidentally was located in an environmentally controlled room of about 2,000 square feet). However this connection starts back even further to my high school days in the late 60’s (and some might argue the connection has its roots over 800 years ago). I had a math teacher with access to a computer at a vocational school across town. He offered an after-hours class in pro- gramming, which was very unusual at the time. At the start, we were given very simple programs to write, one of which was to calculate a sequence of numbers. Suppose I asked you for the number that follows, 2, 4, 8, 16, you would likely say 32, as 2 x 2 = 4, 4 x 2 = 8, 8 x 2 = 16, and 16 x 2 = 32, and so on. However, we were given the assignment to calculate the sequence which starts with 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. Can you figure out the next number in that sequence? If you said 13 you would be correct as the last two numbers in the sequence are added to produce the next number, 1 + 1 = 2, 2 + 1 = 3, 3 + 2 = 5, 5 +3 = 8 and 8 +5 = 13, then 21, 34 and so on. These are called Fibonacci num- bers, named after the Italian mathe- matician who lived in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. He supposedly discovered this sequence when studying rabbit population growth. What is so special about Fibonacci numbers? As a teenager, nothing. I wondered why our teacher couldn’t come up with something more prac- tical that would be useful to us at some point in the future. Forty years later the connection was completed. That is when I first became aware of a new method, gaining widespread popularity, for planning the amount of work a team of programmers could complete in a week or two. Using this method, programmers assign a number to each work task as follows: 1 - Very Simple 2 - Simple 3 - Moderate 5 - Complex 13 - Very complex 21 - Extremely complex The idea behind using these num- bers is to increase separation as work becomes more risky, harder to under- stand, and complicated. Now my teams use Fibonacci numbers every day. Special thanks to Bugs, Peter and Roger. EVEN RABBITS CAN HELP MAKE CONNECTIONS By: Dan Rosenberg www.theconnectionsnj.com