I'm still on a semi-enforced vacation from academia, but I couldn't resist reading some of the essays found on electronic book review. The essays are a selection from two MIT Press books, First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game and Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. There are a bunch of interesting essays (and some not-so-interesting ones, I'm sure), on topics ranging from IF to WoW to more general ruminations on narrative, stories, gaming in general:

The First Person thread is a collaboration among electronic book review, MIT Press, and editors Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. It explores a new model for connection between online publishing and traditional edited books in which printed works are not only reproduced electronically but also substantially expanded via responses to the collection (ripostes) and enriched by incorporation into the ebr database. This thread includes almost all the contents of a trilogy of edited collections published by MIT: First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media, and a not-yet-announced final volume. The material in these volumes and on ebr represents a new level of dialogue between creators and critics about emerging forms of fictional and playable experience.

This is very cool, because books from academic presses are frequently (a) hideously expensive and (b) hard to get. I'm one of those people that likes to purchase my books, so I can underline and bracket and dog ear to my heart's content, but there are a couple of classics that will not be part of my personal collection since they now go for $250+ thanks to small publishing runs. I think it's a great move to offer these sorts of books that do hold interest for a wider audience for free, and in an electronic format. Part of a new trend, perhaps?

thread: First Person [electronic book review via Emily Short]

During the four-week Independent Activities Period course in January, students not only learned about the new microprocessor, they designed and implemented projects to run directly on PlayStation 3 consoles. The student team with the best project—a 3-D version of the classic pong game—later presented its work and discussed the experience at the Game Developer Conference in March.

The success has inspired MIT and IBM (with sponsorship from Sony) to offer the course again in 2008, which I can only assume is going to make getting into the computer lab that much harder. Kim Phu

MIT, IBM Team Up on First Playstation 3 Course [Physorg via Game News]

The first-ever class on the Playstation 3's Cell Broaband Engine has just wrapped up over at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

During the four-week course students learned about the new microprocessor and designed and implemented projects on Playstation 3s. The student with the best project, a 3D version of Pong, presented their work at this year's Game Developers Conference.

The course, which focused mainly on parallel programming, was taught by Saman Amarasinghe, a professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Dr. Rodric Rabbah of IBM.

"The fact that students - with no background in parallel programming or the Cell/B.E.- were able to get their projects done from scratch in just about one month largely goes to show the capability and determination of our students, coupled with the availability of a robust toolchain for Cell/B.E. development," said Saman Amarasinghe, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT.

"Cell/B.E. is going to be an underlying architecture that has the potential to be included in a wide range of industry applications and solutions in the future," said Dr. Rodric Rabbah, IBM Research. "This course was able to break down the details of a highly complex microprocessor and challenge students to see where the performance, power and versatility could be applied outside of gaming. Based on the feedback we received from the students, it was a tremendous success."

I've heard rumblings that some U.S. Defense project companies are playing around with Cell technology too. Brian Crecente

6.189 Multicore Programming Primer [MIT]

In celebration of the Wii, some clever MIT "hackers" have mounted a Tri-Force of Power on the top of the Great Dome on campus. However, these are probably not the kind of hacks you are thinking of. As the MIT admissions web page puts it:

MIT has a long tradition of "hacks," or clever and elegant pranks showcasing the playful and inventive spirit of MIT. Hacks are performed by hackers, MIT students who safely and stealthily execute the pranks according to an informal code of ethics. These ethics, loosely stated, assert that hacks must do no damage to property or any person, must be safe, and must provide joy or amusement to those who experience the hack.

Leave it to MIT to make even pranks sound boring. Flynn De Marco

Straight from the Early Morning Bummer Department, we're sad to report that Alan Kotok — the MIT visionary who helped create both the first video game, the first joystick and the first implementation of multiplayer — is dead.

Kotok was one of the guys who put together Spacewar in 1961. Kotok was the guy who put together the initial sine and cosine routines on which the rest of the game was based. He also single-handedly created the prototype joystick.

It's sad to lose a real gaming visionary. We here at Kotaku — unofficially re-christening ourselves as Kotoku in remembrance of his spunk and love of fun — tip our glasses in fond remembrance. Better late than never. Thanks, Alan! Florian Eckhardt

Alan Kotok's Obituary [MIT]

Okay, in Academia a prank can't be just a prank. At MIT a prank isn't just a prank - it's a hack. This most recent hack turned a hall in MIT into a Super Mario Bros. level. Instead of what I, and many others may think of as a "hack" (involving computers, viruses and anger), the hack at MIT involved a lot of time, energy, construction paper and sleep deprivation. I have to admit though, I do like what they've done with the place.

Yay a Hack! [Life of a Tecker]