Turning dreams into reality

My department (Computer Science) is in our College of Engineering. At a recent event, a T-shirt was distributed which said, "Turning dreams into reality."

Although that phrase has become something of a cliche, I like it because it characterizes what Computer Scientist and Engineers have in common. We both turn our thoughts into something real in the world.

When I showed the shirt to Debora, she said that what the Humanities do is to turn reality into dreams. I guess the Sciences turn reality into abstractions. The Professions? They turn reality into money.

The web? Who cares? I want my TV.

Twenty-nine percent of all U.S. households (31 million homes) do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months …. [T]he main professed cause for non-subscribers is not economic but a low perceived value of the Internet. Forty-four percent of these households say they are not interested in anything on the Internet, and just 22% say they cannot afford a computer or the cost of Internet service.

These are the results of a survey by Park Associates .

“The industry continues to chip away at the core of non-subscribers but has a ways to go,” said John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates. “Entertainment applications will be the key. If anything will pull in the holdouts, it’s going to be applications that make the Internet more akin to pay TV.”