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Category: Misc

Best Music of 2011

Posted on Jan 02, 2012

For those of you that don’t already know, over the past year I have cohosted a biweekly radio show with my friend Bob Silverberg on CodeBass Radio in which we cover our favorite new releases. To find these songs I listen to a lot of music every week just to pick out the 8 or so songs I want to play. Hopefully this puts me in a good position to pick some of the best music of the year. Even if it doesn’t, I am doing it anyway. All of the below songs and artists I did feature at some point over the year on the show, Vitamin Sweet. I hope you enjoy them and also feel free to share you favorites from this year. If you do like my musical tastes (which can be quite different from Bob’s), be sure to tune in to Vitamin Sweet on every other Friday starting again on the 13th.

Still Here. Still Focused on the Developer Community.

Posted on Nov 09, 2011

Over the past couple days and for obvious reasons, many people have reached out to me to check on me and learn of my fate. The good news (at least for me) is that I am still employed in my position as a community manager at Adobe. Obviously while I am grateful, I am also saddened to see some of my friends and colleagues who are no longer with Adobe.

Throughout the past couple days, Adobe has begun to lay out its strategy for the future and, as one might expect, much of this impacts our developer community currently targeting runtimes like Flash Player and AIR. The truth is, in a position like mine, I am often working in the weeds without a clear view of the jungle, so I am not prepared to comment personally on the specifics of that strategy. However, it has always been part of my mandate to operate a two-way channel of communication with the developer community. By this I mean that sometimes, clearly, I hope to communicate outwardly about Adobe's priorities and direction but a co-equal part of my job is to communicate the issues and priorities of our developer community back to Adobe.

Sometimes this part of the job means I need to have a thick skin or wear a flak jacket but it is also a part of my job that I plan to continue to do until directed otherwise. Of course, the change in strategy has an impact on the ground and affects many of you. As you face these challenges, keep in mind that I am still here to listen to your questions and concerns and communicate them as effectively as I can within Adobe. As I have said before, I cannot guarantee that I will always be able to get you an answer or even that, when I can, you will like the answer. However, I can guarantee that I will always do my best to address your concerns honestly and urgently. So, please continue to feel free to email me at brinaldi [at] adobe [dot] com and I promise t continue to do my best representing the needs, concerns and questions of the developer community within Adobe. Thanks.

Get Your New Music Fix on CodeBass Radio!

Posted on Mar 31, 2011

CodeBass Radio, an excellent Internet radio station started by Vicky Ryder, Ben Farrell and James Allen, keeps growing and expanding their lineup. They have tons of retro between 90sThursday and 80sRewind. They also have plenty of guitars and amps between Rock Rage and The Guilty Robot Broadcast. Well I hope to bring something a little bit different to CodeBass - I'm bringing all new stuff and I'm packing the keyboards and drum machines..well, among other things. Tomorrow I kick off my first opportunity to DJ on CodeBass Radio along with my friend Bob Silverberg (who currently hosts Bob's Basement) for a show we're calling Vitamin Sweet. Why "Vitamin Sweet"? Because it's about new music...duh! ;) Catch us tomorrow morning beginning at 10am Eastern on codebassradio.net or via MediaSlurp.

PAX East 2011 Day 2 - 3DS, Child of Eden and more

Posted on Mar 13, 2011

Day 1 was spent trying a couple games that I wouldn't play in front of my children. Day 2 of PAX East was spent with my 8 year old son, so everything I tried was "kid safe" (or at least my opinion of kid safe). While this meant that I would miss out on some notable upcoming releases like L.A. Noire, Star Wars the Old Republic and Red Faction Armageddon, I did get to try some of the most anticipated games and devices coming this year including the 3DS and Ubisoft's Child of Eden. In addition, I tried some very soon to be released games including Swarm, Carnival Games, and Pokemon Trading Card Game Online, and some already released games like Need for Speed World, Risk Factions, Raskulls, Pokemon Black and White and Mario Sport Mix. I spent the entire 6 hours on the Expo floor and here's some thoughts about what I saw and tried.

PAX East 2011 Day 1 - Duke Nukem Forever & Gears of War 3

Posted on Mar 11, 2011

Today was day one of PAX East 2011 in Boston. For those of you who do not know it, PAX East is a huge gaming conference run by the Penny Arcade folks. Last year was the first East Coast edition which drew well over 60,000 attendees to the Back Bay of Boston - pretty much exceeding the capacity of the Hynes Convention Center where it was being held. This year, in order to accomodate another sellout capacity expected to be well above last year's they have moved the event to the Boston Convention Center which is significantly bigger in size to the prior venue. This meant what felt like an endless walk through cavernous halls just to pick up my lanyard and program. In fact, this year the size feels quite overwhelming.

Before I discuss my, albeit brief, first day experience, I should note that while the conference deals in video games, board games and card games, I am only really interested in the video game portion. Also, I am specifically interested in the console games as I am not a PC gamer. Lastly, I attend these events to see the demos on the expo floor - I generally am not interested in seeing sessions about gaming. Today I spent only a couple hours on the expo floor but I was able to try a couple of high profile games including Gears of War 3 and Duke Nukem Forever. Below are my thoughts on these two games.

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