# Thesis defense passed! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067 "2009-08-11T15:21:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/1 "2009-08-11T15:21:19Z")
God, that was a proper grilling! I passed the viva for my PhD thesis after 5 hours of discussion where everything I’d written was inspected thoroughly. At the end of the day, I only got minor corrections, and the examiners estimate it would only take a couple of months of work to tidy up various definitions and things that need clarifications. All in all, the corrections required were quite fair, but good god, the questioning was really, really stressful. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/2 "2009-08-11T15:34:01Z")
Congrats. Having been the coordinator of a graduate program back in the day, I know how tough those defenses can be. I’ve seen more than one candidate nearly pass out from the stress. So celebrate, you deserve it! ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/3 "2009-08-11T15:34:33Z")
Congratulations! What was the thesis on? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/4 "2009-08-11T16:11:07Z")
That is great! What was your thesis? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/5 "2009-08-11T16:49:44Z")
Yay you! Seems like only a couple of months ago you were looking for procrastination-combat tips … oh wait, it _was_ only a couple of months ago. 😃 Congrats, Dr. Aruns! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/6 "2009-08-11T17:24:52Z")
See, toldja 😃 I love being able to say “toldja” when it’s for good news. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/7 "2009-08-11T17:51:57Z")
Congratulations! Enjoy your victory! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/8 "2009-08-11T17:52:58Z")
Hurray!!! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/9 "2009-08-12T04:11:12Z")
Congratulations! During my oral examinations, I would always try to bring up some controversial topic on which members of my committee disagreed. They would fight with each other and ignore me.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/10 "2009-08-12T13:39:21Z")
Conga-rats! What was your topic? And once you whip it into final form, put it up on the web somewhere and post a link for us, would you? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/11 "2009-08-12T15:10:48Z")
Congrats - that’s Life Event-level stuff - you made it! I am also curious on the topic… ---
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/12 "2009-08-12T15:26:56Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Congrats - that’s Life Event-level stuff - you made it! > > I am also curious on the topic… I’d rather keep my online persona separate from my daily life, if you know what I mean, so I don’t feel like linking to the thesis from here, although it’ll probably end online anyway, as all theses are meant to be public and accessible by everyone. As for the topic, it’s computer science; a study on a language to represent business contracts in a form computers can use and people can actually understand, rather than having to delve in hairy, obscure syntax; and then an architecture to “run” a contract written in that language, to see that everyone sticks to what they sign and don’t mess around. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/13 "2009-08-12T15:33:27Z")
How did you handle the [ninjas on unicycles](http://wondermark.com/238/)? Seriously, congratulations! You might want to hide the topic from transactional lawyers, though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/14 "2009-08-12T17:30:44Z")
> [@Lars\_Aruns](#): > > I’d rather keep my online persona separate from my daily life, if you know what I mean, so I don’t feel like linking to the thesis from here, although it’ll probably end online anyway, as all theses are meant to be public and accessible by everyone. > > As for the topic, it’s computer science; a study on a language to represent business contracts in a form computers can use and people can actually understand, rather than having to delve in hairy, obscure syntax; and then an architecture to “run” a contract written in that language, to see that everyone sticks to what they sign and don’t mess around. I will buy that. Seriously - call me when its ready. My company maintains an ever-growing list of Service Agreements, long-term Contracts, addenda, etc. - mostly with physicians. An easy-to-search, easy-to-modularize-and-maintain approach to contract creation and management would be a big hassle-reducer and could improve our relationship management. Gonna get entrepreneurial with it? ---
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/15 "2009-08-12T17:46:59Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I will buy that. Seriously - call me when its ready. My company maintains an ever-growing list of Service Agreements, long-term Contracts, addenda, etc. - mostly with physicians. An easy-to-search, easy-to-modularize-and-maintain approach to contract creation and management would be a big hassle-reducer and could improve our relationship management. > > Gonna get entrepreneurial with it? Well, the copyright belongs to the University, so it’s not directly me that can get entrepreneurial, but I’m sure they’d like the stuff to be used in real life applications, especially if they can make the money out of it to help run the expensive labs and computer clusters they have. Right now there’s little ready for prime time, so to speak, but if you want to talk in more detail about what I do, well, send me a message. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/16 "2009-08-12T18:02:51Z")
> [@Lars\_Aruns](#): > > Well, the copyright belongs to the University, so it’s not directly me that can get entrepreneurial, but I’m sure they’d like the stuff to be used in real life applications, especially if they can make the money out of it to help run the expensive labs and computer clusters they have. Right now there’s little ready for prime time, so to speak, but if you want to talk in more detail about what I do, well, send me a message. Cool - I am not the “paper” guy - I am a “deal” guy who works with General Counsel at our company - who manages the contracts to paper deals. I will check with him. Sounds like you are pretty far from prime time, and we are itty-bitty so I doubt we could invest or be a beta site, but by all means, keep at it - it really sounds like you could have something. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thesis-defense-passed/506067/17 "2009-08-13T00:01:45Z")
My imaginary recreation: examiner: This paragraph is totally wrong LA: Is not! examiner: Is too! LA:Is not MAXINT! examiner: Is too MAXINT + 1 - oh wait, that would be negative (assuming signed values) or 0 if unsigned … Brian Congrats!