College Offers Video Game Aid To Parents!

Print Story | Email Story
Williamstown - Are you hoping your holiday stocking will be stuffed with a video game? Does Santa need good advice about what to buy? All will be revealed at Williams College's Holiday Gaming Guide Lecture on Mon., Dec. 11, at 7 p.m. The event will be held in Bronfman Auditorium in the Williams Science Center. Gaming Expert Morgan McGuire Gaming expert Morgan McGuire will introduce the technology behind the Playstation 3, Xbox360, and Nintendo Wii video game consoles, explain the differences between these, and show how to find appropriate games for children of different ages. A panel of Williams students will be there to recommend games for different systems and answer audience questions about video games. The presentation will include live demonstrations and a take-home game buying guide. McGuire, who is assistant professor of computer science at Williams, received his B.S. from MIT and his Ph.D. in computer science from Brown University. He's the co-chair of the 2008 ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games and on the editorial board of publisher A. K. Peters' game development series. At Williams, he teaches computer graphics and game design and hosts a colloquium on the impact of entertainment technology. McGuire has consulted for the games industry on titles including Titan Quest (2006), ROBLOX (2005), and Zen of Sudoko (2006) and served as a senior software architect at several graphics-related companies including PeakStream, Curl, and Oculus Technologies. His current research spans computer vision and video games. He's using video cameras to help computers understand the 3D world around them, and his new design methods for video games increase interactivity and engagement. The PlayStation 3 is Sony's seventh generation era video game console, third in the PlayStation series. It is the successor to PlayStation and PlayStation 2 and competes primarily against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii. The Xbox 360 is the successor to Microsoft's Xbox video game console, developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, Samsung and SiS. Nintendo's Wiiâ„¢ home video game console includes a series of on-screen "channels" that make up the Wii Channel Menu and a first-of-its-kind controller whose position can be detected in a 3-D space.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Former Harry's Supermarket Under Construction for Restaurant

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Construction is underway to transform the former Harry's Supermarket into a restaurant

Late last month, the Conservation Commission greenlit some tree pruning on the property. New windows and a new door can be seen in the front of the building. 

"It's a substantial renovation that's currently underway here," Brent White of White Engineering said, speaking on behalf of the applicant and owner, Huajie Zhu. 

A fire gutted the longtime Wahconah Street supermarket in 2023, and the following year, Zhu purchased the property for $460,000 two years ago to build a restaurant with hibachi in the existing footprint of the more than 100-year-old building. 

White explained that the project has been ongoing for over a year, and the Community Development Board granted the property a waiver to reduce the minimum required number of parking spaces so that additional spaces aren't needed.  

He noted that, looking at the site plan, there is very little room to do so. A mirror will be installed near the sharp turn on Bel Air Avenue to alleviate traffic concerns. 

Pruning will be done on trees in the southeast corner of the existing paved parking lot, as a number of branches are hanging over. The new owners also intend to patch, sealcoat, and re-stripe the parking lot. 

A fire tore through the building less than an hour after the supermarket closed for the day three years ago. An automatic sprinkler system is required for the new use. 

View Full Story

More North County Stories