Thanks for clarifying the aims of this thread for me, Eska

What an hilarious morning I've just had. My deadbeat brother (age 27), who doesn't work or do very much at all other than watch movies on his 42- inch plasma TV, cut himself washing his glass coin saving jar. It was a tiny gash, not even bloody, but apparently he reckoned he could see bone. So he dialled 999...but it gets worse. The operator on the phone told him to get a bus to casualty. So he said: "I can't. I'm on medication and I can't catch buses". So she sorts him out an ambulance to come to him. Then he says "How am I going to get home. I need transport home as well. Can I have that?" So she reluctantly sorts that out for him. But then it gets even worse. He actually rings his deadbeat friend up and asks him if he'd like to go to hospital with him - like it's some kind of day trip and says to the EMTs, while they're putting a little bandage round his cut, "can my mate come too?".
It's a times like this you realise why the NHS is as overstretched as it is.

Erm, no Eska, no, no, you didn't.

Faisalrehman, your research sounds fascinating, even though I'm not sure what half of it means. I'd love to help find you a nice career, like most of the other posters on here, but I'm in the same position as you and in no position to set you up for life. I'm not even in a position to help you find said scholarship, like everyone else on here, which will explain the lack of responses you may get to your post.
The best course of action is to use www.findaphd.com. Google is quite good as well.

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I'm sorry (this will probably get modded anyway tomorrow), but what a sh***y way of your supervisor to act. It's not only grossly unprofessional but also demeaning and dispiriting. I think that keenbean puts it well when she says that a week before your viva is totally the wrong time to make any negative comments about your work. And the PhD student can shut the hell up - has she read your work, does she know what it's all about, just she have the skills to even appraise it? Nope. She's just a brown-nosing parrot screeching on about what your supervisor has very unprofessionally opined.
I'm not in your position yet (still quite a few months to go) but I'd be willing to bet that even if my thesis does turn out to be reasonable quality, I'm definitely going to be thinking the worse like you. On the subject of data analysis quality, I've made a couple of mistakes myself, but it's too late to do anything about them now. That's what happens when you do sequential research like me. The train to viva hell moves on and there's no putting it in reverse. What I'm going to do is accept that it is all part of training to be a researcher - I've spotted my mistakes and know what to do about it in future (I'll still defend my results to the best of my ability).
Just remember that you know you know your research better than anyone else, including your supervisor and her little underling. You also know it's strengths and weaknesses, which you are prepared to discuss objectively during the viva. Remember that the external examiner (in conjunction with your viva examining regulations) looks at the whole package - intro, data collection and analysis, discussion and the lot. No research is perfect and all research has limitations.

Good luck :-)(up)

I can tell you a little story about short theses. My supervisor gave me hers as an example of a successful thesis right at the start of my PhD. It's actually quite short for a thesis, but it flows extremely well and reads beautifully. I never finished reading it and thought "that's short for a thesis" and I never looked at the thickness of it either. I just finished it and thought, God, I'll never replicate this kind of quality. I wouldn't worry about a thesis being short, it really is all about the quality and how it flows.

0 today...I never really got started...:$

Sneaks, I was trying to be magnanimous in these PC-laden times... But yeah, I agree actually; some people do have easier PhDs.

I, like many other members of this forum, can completely identify with you. The most important point you can take away with you from these posts is that you should never compare yourself with other PhD students. The fact of the matter is that everyone's PhD journey is completely different and you can't compare chalk with cheese. As I understand it, some people are lucky to have PhDs which require less methods and theories than others, though I wouldn't go so far as to say that some people have easier PhDs than other - it's all relative afterall.
Now, you're right at the start of your PhD and so, given how much you're going to develop and improve (come on tremendously in fact), I wouldn't start worrying about the impossibility of it all at this point. Honestly, you've just started, jumped in head first and you can't see the wood for the trees at the moment. Things will clear for you quite soon, as you continue to read and learn, and you'll quite soon develop your own little niche for research and fit it in with all of the existing paradigm and theories (you know what I mean) and feel quite comfortable. Remember that you're not reinventing the wheel - you're just trying to add to the existing bodies of research that are out there in your own modest way.
I can, of course, completely identify with your dilemma. I'm a third year with less than a year left and I'm still where you are right at the start! The difference is it took me longer (being basically dumb) to identify the issues that you have already identified! The other difference is, having been doing a PhD for quite a while now, I'm not quite as stressed because I realise the place of my research, the impossibility of trying to understand and integrate everything (so my own limitations) and that am training to be a researcher - so that's essentially what I'm going to demonstrate in my thesis.
Everything you're going through now is perfectly normal, even though stressful, and you're going to find, as you write you thesis, that this is all part of your journey - you're learning at a very rapid rate, and you'll reflect on this issue in a few months and think "ahh, I see". It is so easy to feel overwhelmed, but just take things one step at a time - that's what the first year is for. And please don't worry about the fact that other people are already publishing. So what? I have yet to get a paper published, but will have one or two in time.
Although you may want to quit at the moment, give it time because things will change and you have nothing to lose so far. Remember, a PhD is something like 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. And don't forget just how important your supervisory team are for helping you navigate things like this. Perhaps they can help you narrow down your research focus and remind you that you don't need to know everything about everything. A PhD is, after all, a process of knowing more and more about less and less.:-)

Sneaks, that's crap as well. The best one is Dragon NS - by far. It's the industry leader or something. Don't get me wrong, it is good but just probably not the solution you think it is.

Sneaks, I would tread carefully with the Dragon Naturally Speaking software. It is accurate, but it takes a while to train and sometimes it just completely mistranslates you. Also, you need quite a nippy computer to take full advantage because otherwise it won't be able to transcribe at the speed you talk.

That's all right, Eska. You may think you are winning with your dastardly plans, but I'll just wait until some future point, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, and I'll post then. I will win - of that I am certain. Bonsoir!

Tut tut Eska! My weak heart can't take such sudden shocks.

I'll help Karl - I've got a few moments before I go to bed - just PM me.