Thanks BigV. I had two other people give it a very thorough looking over, so hopefully most of the errors got caught.

I'm not sure I quite understand you. I'll reply anyway.

The standards here aren't notoriously, er, not high. I think it's safe to assume that either mine or my girlfriend's dissertations will be judged acceptable. Hopefully both.

Who knows, I could pass just because my paper is in reasonably fluent English. That's an advantage of being one of two native-fluency English speakers in the program.

No wonder you were demotivated, then -- if the quality wasn't so important it became more of a thankless task, eh?

Yeah. The stress and demotivation came partly from my (usually pragmatic) perfectionism and the fact that the pass line for my program is basically showing up.

I had the same problem with my first software development gig. Quality was of fairly low priority, as long as the customers weren't complaining too loudly. There wasn't any real development methodology. We scored about a zero on the Joel test, and would have scored negative if it were possible. It was nearly impossible to get fired (before the place went under after ~10 years in business). After 5 years there I was ready to give up programming for good.

As soon as I started working on my own projects my enjoyment resurged. Now I know what I want to do: I want to work for a small company that values quality, agility, both employees and customers. And will fire customers and employees when it must.

Wow. Does that last post sound like business-droid vomit or what?

This program has scarred me for life.

What programme was it? It sounds thoroughly disheartening.

I took a taught MSc. in E-Business and Information Systems.

Apparently Newcastle has some great programs, especially when it comes to the Medical and Dental schools. My program was about as far from great as I can imagine.

HERE you go! :D

OK, but the really important question about Newcastle is: Is King Kevin in or out?

Out

I actually like the guy but anyone who thinks Joey Barton deserves to ever set a foot on a pitch deserves to be tossed on his ass.