13 Year Old Alfie is NOT a Dad after all.!! hurray.!!

When I posted an entry about 13 year old kid, Alfie Patten, who was the alleged father of baby Maisie with his 16 year old girlfriend Chantelle Stedman, I received a lot of comments. It seemed that a lot, if not all who read my post have the same concern as mine which is unbelief and doubt that Alfie, who looks too young for his age and a seraph at that could be a father and pity that he will live from that time on and forward as a father raising a family than a kid who should enjoy his childhood playing and being a kid.

Well, good news guys, as it turned out, from the DNA test that is (thank God for the DNA test), that our young Alfie is NOT the real father of baby Maisie. Even though, Chantelle was Alfie's girlfriend she was sleeping with other boys or men in that matter. The true biological father is still not known at this moment. Thank God that Alfie's mom really insisted on a DNA test or else Chantelle's little secret would have ruined not only Alfie's life but also baby Maisie's as well.

Talk about liberated. Young boys and girls nowadays just think that the birds and the bees as a game. At these times, it really calls for "PARENTAL GUIDANCE IS A MUST.

Is Maintenance Programming Really More Challenging??

As Dave Thomas would quote it, “All programming is maintenance programming, because you are rarely writing original code.” I have to agree but then in this topic let us refer to the definition of maintenance programming shall we? Maintenance programming is defined as the modification of a software product after delivery to correct faults, to improve performance or other attributes, or to adapt the product to a modified environment.

I think a lot of programmers will agree that creating your own programs or systems are easier and finishes faster than editing programs made by other people. I have already personally dealt with a situation like that and I found out that programmers opt to write their own function because it's easier and more fun than figuring out how the old function works. In the latter, you would have to familiarize if not study the whole code of the old system to know where to change it and add upon it. Familiarizing and making the system adapt to the changes you are about to subject to it are rather troublesome than just starting off from scratch. As Joel Spolsky would quote it, “It's harder to read code than to write it.” This is one of the reasons why a programmer would rather make a new program than do maintenance programming.

Maintenance Programming is intellectually complex, technically difficult, unfair, no-win dirty work and conservative. Thus, a maintenance programmer should be knowledgeable with his trade, patient, disciplined, creative, up to the challenge or willing, conservative and has good communication skills. A maintenance programmer should like what his doing so as to have the will and tenacity that this challenging task requires. As already stressed above, he should have good communication skills since he needs to communicate well with the users of the systems and to the original developers of the system.

Many software developers are introvert persons who prefer to deal with technology rather than with people. However, the software is written for people to use it, and in the case of maintained software, we already have users. It is crucial to find out how they use the software, why they use it, what problems are they trying to solve, what functionality they need. To find that out, don’t wait for them to come to you; be proactive and go to them. If possible, communicate with original developers. If you are lucky, some of the original developers are still with the company, and they can be a tremendous help and save a lot of your time. Don’t expect them to do the actual coding for you, but they can throw you an idea how to accomplish something, explain you why something works the way it works, and provide you with lots of helpful hints.

Developer and User Responsibility

Question: Developers work together with customers and users to define requirements and specify what the proposed system will do. If, once it is built, the system works according to the specification but harms someone physically or financially, who is responsible?

Software success depends on developing a collaborative partnership between software developers and their customers. In the given situation, where the system works according to the specification given by the customer, we can say that the software done was a success. But then again, does this still stand if the software harms someone physically or financially? The main question that is raised now is whether who is at fault. Is it the customer or the developer? This statement is truly a moot point.

A customer is anyone who reaps benefits from a product and is the one who request, pay for, select, specify or use a software system. It is the customer from which the developer derives the key features and specification of how the system should be done. While, the developer is the one who translates these requirement specifications into code. In this light, it can be easily assumed that the customer should take the blame since the system made was a product of the customer’s choices and preferences and the developer only acts as a medium for the customer to get his product. Therefore, the “harmful” system even though made by the developer is the responsibility of the customer who have requested, gave information/ project requirements and purchased the software.

But in some parts, the developer can be said responsible. Why? The developer being the one more knowledgeable in creating the software should have foreseen if the system being done was harmful in any way and should have informed the customer. It’s true that a developer must follow the specifications set by the customer, following the saying that “the customer is always right” but then the customer being unfamiliar with developing systems may not know that such requirements were harmful. Thus, in light f this event it is the responsibility of the developer to take care of its users, inform the customer and give advice or alternatives that will lessen or eradicate the harmful effects of the system. Failure to do so, then the developer should be the one held responsible for any harm done.

But then again, in the event that the customer was informed before hand and still pursued the original plans even with the knowledge of the harm it would bring, the customer should be the one held responsible for its consequences.

Quality software is the product of a well-executed design based on accurate requirements, which are in turn the result of effective communication and collaboration—a partnership—between developers and customers. Collaborative efforts only work when all parties involved know what they need to be successful, and when they understand and respect what their collaborators need to succeed. Thus, if any failure such as the situation given above we can say that both parties should share the responsibilities so as to ensure business value, user satisfaction, and developer fulfillment in the end.

Pink Dolphin??

The photograph you see above is a not a photo shop edited image but a real one. Erik Rue, a Charter boat captain, is the one who took the picture of the animal above. The pink dolphin above is actually an albino dolphin which was found in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA.

Capt Rue described that the said dolphin is not only pink in color from tip to tail but also has reddish eyes and skin that appears smooth and glossy. He said that he spotted this dolphin 40-50 times already, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins, with one appearing to be its mother which never left its side.


"I had never seen anything like it. It's the same color throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth.", said Capt Rue.

Well, I think that most of us will agree with that statement. Its a kind of dolphin that Hello Kitty and fans would be proud of. I only see pink colored animals on cartoons and I never dreamed that I would see a pink animal, a dolphin at that. To this dolphins fans there is no need to worry though we can consider this as a sick dolphin since this condition was caused by albinism (which actually made me a bit more puzzled since isn't an albino be abnormally white not pink hahaha), Capt Rue assured that "the dolphin appears to be healthy and normal other than its coloration, which is quite beautiful and stunningly pink".


A close relation of dolphins, the Amazon River Botos, called pink dolphins, live in South America in the Amazon. To the people living near Lake Calcasieu, please take good care of the lake and its inhabitants especially this very special pink dolphin.

SOURCE