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.

Flushing of Pittsfield's Water System to Begin

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city of Pittsfield's Department of Public Utilities announces that phase 1 of the flushing of the city's water system will begin Monday, April 22.
 
Water mains throughout the city will be flushed, through hydrants, over the upcoming weeks to remove accumulations of pipeline corrosion products. Mains will be flushed Monday through Friday each week, except holidays, between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.
 
  • The upcoming flushing for April 22 to May 3 is expected to affect the following areas:
  • Starting at the town line on Dalton Avenue working west through Coltsville including lower Crane Avenue, Meadowview neighborhood, following Cheshire Road north.
  • Hubbard Avenue and Downing Parkway.
  • Starting at the town line on East Street working west through the McIntosh and Parkside neighborhoods.
  • Elm Street neighborhoods west to the intersection of East Street.
  • Starting at the town line on Williams Street, working west including Mountain Drive,
  • Ann Drive, East New Lenox Road, and Holmes Road neighborhoods.
Although flushing may cause localized discolored water and reduced service pressure conditions in and around the immediate area of flushing, appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that proper levels of treatment and disinfections are maintained in the system at all times. If residents experience discolored water, they should let the water run for a short period to clear it prior to use.
 
If discolored water or low-pressure conditions persist, please contact the Water Department at (413) 499-9339.
 
Flushing is an important operating procedure that contributes significantly to the maintenance of the water quality in the water distribution system. 
View Full Story

More North County Stories