Ben Brown

I am making a little mini-application that lets you right click...

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:01:00 -0400

I am making a little mini-application that lets you right click on any image (including animated GIFs) and view it GIGANTIC, like on the cool new site MAXGIF.com which I love.

Once you gigantify an image, you will be able to share it on MLKSHK or send it to MAXGIF or post it on your Tumblr.

I made this for you, a person likely to occasionally enjoy watching gigantic animated gif files in a full screen window.

You can get it here.

I just want to save this snapshot of time for posterity.

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:17:00 -0400

I just want to save this snapshot of time for posterity.

Stink bugs on a sunflower.

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:03:17 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Stink bugs on a sunflower.

Here are a few short videos of the things around me right now.

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:01:19 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Here are a few short videos of the things around me right now.

This is also the best sketch ever written. If my memory serves...

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:53:00 -0400

This is also the best sketch ever written.

If my memory serves me, both of these sketches were written by Dino Stamatopoulos, otherwise known as “Star-Burns.”

While I’m linking to Mr. Show videos… this is, in my...

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:50:55 -0400

While I’m linking to Mr. Show videos… this is, in my humble opinion, the best sketch ever written.

motherjones: Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides, which now coat...

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:45:00 -0400

motherjones:

Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides, which now coat upwards of 90 percent of US corn seeds and seeds of increasing portions of other major crops like soy, have emerged as a likely trigger for colony collapse disorder.

What a surprise! Toxic corn and soy beans are killing the bees. Maybe we can revive them with some tax incentives or a bailout of the pollination industry.

In other news, NASA to blow up the moon.

Self Portrait (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 11 May 2012 22:43:47 -0400

Self Portrait (Taken with instagram)

Iron Man (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 11 May 2012 22:20:00 -0400

Iron Man (Taken with instagram)

Hey Internet! We are looking to expand our little team at XOXCO by adding one more person - a ui...

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:10:00 -0400

Hey Internet!

We are looking to expand our little team at XOXCO by adding one more person - a ui designer! Do you want to come work with me and Katie and Damien and Adam in Awesome HQ on fun projects and eat breakfast tacos for lunch every day? Are you a nerd with serious Photoshop skills? Do you want to sit next to me on a regular basis? Apply within, and tell your talented bespectacled friends.

Zelda and her new Triforce blanket from @adammathes (Taken with...

Thu, 10 May 2012 19:38:52 -0400

Zelda and her new Triforce blanket from @adammathes (Taken with instagram)

Today at work, I scanned wet paper! xoxco: A while ago, our...

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:26:48 -0400

Today at work, I scanned wet paper!

xoxco:

A while ago, our friend Dr. Bleep of Bleep Labs gave me a pad of square graph paper that had inadvertently been left out during a rainstorm, which had caused the grid to bleed and run.

We’re updating some of our marketing materials, and I thought we could use these images in the background - they capture a sense of controlled chaos that I really like, and think is appropriate for the messy world of product design and development.

If you like to read about the stuff I do for work, you should...

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:37:18 -0400

If you like to read about the stuff I do for work, you should follow the newly redesigned XOXCO Blog. We will be posting about our projects, our processes, and topics of interest to people involved in software development, product design, and running a small business.

I am particularly proud of the responsive design for our blog, demonstrated above. It should look great on virtually any device.

I have been playing the beta of this game for a few weeks. It is...

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:37:00 -0400

I have been playing the beta of this game for a few weeks. It is a must-have game for your iOS device. It will be released on the 15th.

The Sandbox Game

"If people want to donate their time, copyrights, intellectual property, and personal data to..."

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:27:33 -0400

“

If people want to donate their time, copyrights, intellectual property, and personal data to companies and whoever else so they can sell billboards on it in exchange for heart and star icons, that’s fine.

That’s the internet they deserve.

”

- The Internet We Deserve · trenchant.org daily

Optimus Prime is an executive who really knows how to make a...

Sat, 05 May 2012 18:31:54 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Optimus Prime is an executive who really knows how to make a decision.

(From Transformers: S.O.S. Dinobots, otherwise known as the episode that introduces the Dinobots. Now available on Netflix!)

FTW

Fri, 04 May 2012 17:57:00 -0400

FTW

Look who is visiting XOXCO today!

Fri, 04 May 2012 17:12:47 -0400

Look who is visiting XOXCO today!

Speaking of low-rez Austin artists in the news, my officemate BJ...

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:48:15 -0400

Speaking of low-rez Austin artists in the news, my officemate BJ is the featured artist this month at Printpunch!

printpunch:

Featured Artist: BJ Heinley

The month of May brings us Austin-based artist BJ Heinley, who puts his computer to use to create intriguing, new perspectives on sometimes already existing art. Listing the Commodore 64 among his early inspirations, his take on his work, if forced to sum it up in 5 words (which we did), is “Non-Traditional Low Resolution Explorations”.

Growing up in the 70′s and 80′s when computers were just coming into the mainstream, in the era of Pong, Atari and the Commodore 64/128 as well as coin-op video games like Donkey Kong, Track and Field, and Spy Hunter, he became interested in making colors and pixels do his bidding, which led to him getting into coding. He recounts, “On the Commodore, it was the splash screens that got me the most excited. They were so amazing. It was a low-rez world. I wasn’t interested in the coding part, though…it was just a means to an end. I loved drawing and painting so I was continually finding software that allowed me to draw at a higher fidelity on these magical machines. I continued traditional art, of course, but my quest to express myself in an illuminated way has been ever-present. At some point around 1997, I feel like I was able to itch that scratch, and began getting interested in getting my work off of the computer out into the real world. This is where I’m at currently. Print Punch is helping me accomplish this!”

Read full article…

The Austin Chronicle put local low-rez artist Party Time!...

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:47:13 -0400

The Austin Chronicle put local low-rez artist Party Time! Hexcellent! on the front cover of this week’s issue. It is awesome to see pixel art and more broadly speaking this sort of interactive, generative art receiving attention from the art press.

Code is art.