Another link I’ve posted before but worth relinking again, I finished reading Jeremy Keith’s micro-opus on HTML5 last night. It is difficult to imagine a more perfect introduction to HTML5, and it is just as difficult to imagine a more appropriate author for the subject. Well done, Jeremy.

Yesterday’s Authentic Jobs / charity: water campaign got off to a good start, financially speaking. Not as strong of a start in number of contributions, though. I’m confident that, as an industry of talented, generous individuals, we can make some incredible stuff happen for those who lack clean, safe drinking water. Especially when drilling a well isn’t that easy.

I’m willing to pitch in to make it a little easier for you to donate. Starting today (Wednesday) and continuing through Friday, donate at least $5 to charity: water and you’ll be entered to win a copy of my Exclusive Martian Edition Colosseo letterpress poster. This little guy began life as a rebound on Dribbble. Only 15 were printed originally. They’re not for sale to the public.

For every $5 you donate, your name is entered in the drawing. Donate $10, your name is entered twice. Donate $20, four entries. And so on. Just be sure to donate through our campaign page so I can track who’s entered.

I’ll be awarding one of you #10 of 15 at the end of today, #11 tomorrow, and #12 on Friday. Together, we’ll be awarding the people of Bayaka clean water. (Thank you!)

I’ve linked this up before, but it’s worth relinking as Dave Shea has updated the demo page. Choose from several filters, adjust the settings, and see it all in action.

As a reminder, PaintbrushJS is “a lightweight browser-based image processing library built with Javascript and canvas.” Meaning, you can apply filters such as gaussian blur and grayscale to images on the fly. For example, for the photo hovers on a site such as dConstruct 2010, you’d need only one image rather than two.

Looking forward to giving this a proper spin.

This September marks the five-year anniversary of Authentic Jobs. Can you believe it? I can’t. What was once a sidebar on my site has grown into a valuable, standalone resource for web and creative professionals.

We’re kicking off the celebration in three parts, the first of which goes live today at authenticjobs.com/five:

Focused on giving back, we’re asking you to help us celebrate by donating just $20 (or any amount) to charity: water, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing clean water to millions of people in developing countries. If we reach our goal, we’ll send $20,000 to charity: water to help 1,000 Bayaka have safe, clean drinking water.

In Part Two (coming September 17), we’ll be recognizing some of you for helping the site become what it is today. Happy birthday, Authentic Jobs. And a big thank you to all its friends.

P.S. There’s a live drilling today, September 7, at 7pm Eastern Time. Details in this charity: water video.

So, I grew tired of dealing with wires when listening to music at my desk and purchased these Sony bluetooth headphones. It turns out, however, that OS X defaults to low-quality audio for bluetooth headsets and headphones. But that’s simply a default, and it can be changed.

To increase the quality, it’s as easy as entering this in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" 50

or

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" 40

I entered the second of the two. Sound quality is excellent now. Even better, they also pair well with my iPhone—no audio fix needed, as the iPhone defaults to higher quality A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) settings. Has a built-in mic for phone calls, too.

(You can also change the OS X defaults with this fix. But I, for the life of me, cannot find the Bluetooth Explorer on my machine.)

Finally, an iPad Twitter app I can use without cursing the UI. If it detects a reply, it will show the conversation from the individuals included (screenshot). If it detects a URL, it displays the web page (screenshot).

Ben Bodien, who also masterminds a lot of the jQuery, HTML5, and CSS3 material for Authentic Jobs, explains what it took to make Tim Van Damme’s audio player design for The Box a reality.

This is gorgeous and original. Fonts are rendered with Typekit, featuring Coquette, Skolar, and P22 Underground. (Armin, a Twitter account would let me credit you guys for all the linkage I lift from your site.)

/via @jasonsantamaria

A CSS framework for cross-device layouts, built on the principles in Ethan Marcotte’s “Responsive Web Design”. I’m not a huge fan of frameworks, but they can come in handy at times. (See, however, my remarks regarding using media queries for mobile experiences.)

Almost all items priced at $10—tees, wallets, pillows.

Rigs such as these provide multiple touch points to improve stability when shooting. For the most part, these rigs have been out of reach for me, financially speaking. But Redrock’s Nano series of DSLR rigs are compact and affordable, and my budget may be able to spring for one finally.

This post comes from Mike Davidson, who built a stunning custom home in Seattle. He documented nearly every step (including expenses tallied in the sidebar) and shares what he learned along the way, such as this advice:

The most important thing about shower controls is that they should not be placed underneath the showerhead. At least 90% of showers get this wrong, probably just out of builder convenience or laziness. You should be able to step into your shower, fiddle with your knobs, wait until the temperature is right, and then hop into the spray. Consider putting your controls as far away from the showerhead as possible. You’ll thank yourself every morning for it.

Mike, former founder of Newsvine, is a total tech geek, too. So you can trust the house is flooded with all kinds of technology.

I’ve not used it yet, but this looks like a nice app for all you coach dads out there.

As a reminder, I’ll be speaking at this conference next month, along with some very talented individuals. Registration for the workshops is now open, and general registration will be available soon.

Flip through the 388 pages of this digital edition and you’ll find plenty of design inspiration.

Update: Not sure how I missed it (the link is right there in the header), but there’s an iPad app for the book, as well. $5 gets you 388 pages of inspiration at your fingertips.

/via Kottke

I believe the adjective they meant to use was ‘unsurprisingly’.

I recall the last time we were able to watch a live-video Apple event. I believe it was for the launch of Newton back in 1994.

On a serious note, this will be a first for everyone: The ability to watch it live with an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

/via Daring Fireball

Just a friendly reminder that all letterpress poster items are available for purchase at 25% off. Sale ends today, August 31 at midnight EST.

You’ll also receive a free copy of the Palatino Glyphs Poster ($40 value) with the purchase of a Colosseo Poster, Colosseo Limited Edition Poster, or Salt Lake Poster.

Below are a few photos of these posters hung in offices and homes.

Priority Inbox will use “a variety of signals to identify important email, including which messages you open and which you reply to.” To be rolled out next week.

The announcement video is really well done. It’s brief, entertaining, and memorable.

Mig Reyes’ series of short iChat interviews, each asking the interviewee to share one piece of advice for people looking to break into the creative industry, now includes my two cents.