I'm liking the Liquid Glass look of iOS

Google Gemini has done a great job making these images of me. I use them as a fun way to sign-off from my teammates at the end of the day. Remarkable how much better it's become at rendering a consistent character.

Hey that's new @github.com github.blog/changelog/20...

Good morning. I am working on new music. I had some sketched out ideas that I didn't know what to do with, but my wife and nieces really liked it. Last night I found the personal hook that gave me a breakthrough. #indiemusic #musicsky

Sturgeon Point, Lower Arrow Lake, Syringa Provincial Park

Still in Toronto. 9 hours at YYZ so far. Air Canada cancelled our direct flight to Calgary where we sat together for "unscheduled maintenance". They rebooked us apart with a stopover in Ottawa. That's cancelled as missed connection due to "unscheduled maintenance". Now waiting for the third attempt.

Thanks Toronto! We had a wonderful visit. Great city, lovely neighbourhoods, beautiful people. 🏙️

The Power Plant Contemporary Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, #Toronto

Beautiful day at Niagara Falls #Ontario

#NiagaraFalls #CliftonHill 🫣

#CanadianNiagaraFalls 🌈

Niagara Falls! Falls are pretty and the town is touristy so we of course bought knick-knacks. 😂

Steam ships on Lake Muskoka, Ontario

Day trip out to Algonquin Provincial Park. 🍁 Little early for Autumn colours but it was nice to take a breather from the city and see rural Ontario.

Graffiti Alley is correctly identified on maps as an art gallery. Block after block of public art. 🎨

Had a lovely day cycling around Toronto Island. The Bike Share program here is the best.

Had a great evening people watching in Toronto's Entertainment District. King Street was busy for TIFF50. Enjoyed a delicious dinner at Hey Lucy!

Explored the Royal Ontario Museum today. Enjoyed the Ancient Civilizations the most, but the Chinese tomb and fossils were cool too.

The Dog Fountain in Old Town Toronto

Looking good 'Berta ⛰️

#StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds s3e9 "Terrarium" was a cool "Enemy Mine" episode. That was a great looking storm moon and I enjoyed spending more time with Ortegas. Not sure why they were playing chess when they had more pressing things to worry about. 🖖

Out on the patio listening to NTS Radio 1 and browsing the menu for Sakura Sushi Nelson. Copilot is great for looking up fun information about food. * www.nts.live * sakurasushinelson.com/menu/

🔈 OUT NOW!! 🎶 NEON SCENES II: ECHOES OF THEN Inspired by Brian Eno's generative methods of making ambient music. Placed in Vangelis' cyberpunk sound world. Click below for links to Bandcamp and streaming sites: album.link/i/1832517081 Or listen on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9MQ...

There’s a discussion on Hacker News about John Coltrane’s tone circle and very good Vox “Earworm” video from 2018 came up: www.youtube.com/watch?v=62tI... #music #MusicSky

New blog post: "Have you ever wondered how tiny earbuds can produce deep, rumbling bass that seems physically impossible for their size?" #music #history ericjamessoltys.substack.com/p/phantom-fu...

"Dream State" by Lindsey McTavish. Always stop at the Craft Connection / Gallery 378 when in #NelsonBC

Here's the main attraction I've been teasing for two days. I think there may be a lower place to shoot from, but I didn't see a path and wasn't willing to take the risk. Perhaps it's possible to walk down from the lakeshore; I'll investigate that on another trip. Gorgeous, no? #waterfall

Ha! Loved "Four-and-a-half Vulcans" especially La'An's deviation ("Let's say it together!") and their tango. Did Patton write his own part? As over-the-top as it was, the story still had character growth and heart. 🖖 #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds

Archaeologists Are Finding Dugout Canoes in the American Midwest as Old as the Great Pyramids of Egypt. In the waterways connected to the Great Lakes, researchers uncover boats that tell the story of millennia of Indigenous history. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/arch...

Fun with Google Gemini

Been working on a "composition as code" personal project, because I'm a dev and this is how I organize things. Rendering to a MusicXML target has been a "fun" challenge, but I finally got the first measure doing triplets as expected. (Moonlight Sonata) #Music #MusicSky

Summertime on Lower Arrow Lake with friends☀️ #kootenays

New blog post: "In the world of digital music production, two functions sit at opposite ends of the timing spectrum: quantize and humanize." #Music #MusicSky ericjamessoltys.substack.com/p/quantize-v...

Enjoyed reading Chris Ware's article about Richard Scarry's life. Prompted me to order some of his books to relive as an adult. (Can't believe I'd forgotten about Gold Bug!) yalereview.org/article/chri...

AI efficiency is important. The median Gemini Apps text prompt in May 2025 used 0.24 Wh of energy (<9 seconds of TV watching) & 0.26 mL (~5 drops) of water. Over 12 months, we reduced the energy footprint of a median text prompt 33x, while improving quality: cloud.google.com/blog/product...

Good morning. 😊 Starting my sunny Saturday listening to the "Fall of Civilization" podcast about the Bronze Age Collapse. #AncientHistory music.youtube.com/watch?v=B965...

"What is Starfleet?" was another excellent episode of #StrangeNewWorlds. Lovely story, but I mostly enjoyed seeing Ortega's quarters and hearing the crew's personal stories. Also, Uhura's makeup was 🔥.

New blog post: "This shift from visual notation to textual commands opens up entirely new ways of thinking about #music. Patterns become loops, harmonies become arrays, and musical transformations become functions you can call with different parameters." ericjamessoltys.substack.com/p/music-comp...

The latest inflation data for car & home insurance, by province. Alberta absolutely in a league of its own here.

#TinyBookshop is such a well-designed game youtu.be/2TRLBsc_a40?...

New blog post: "Your digital keyboard and acoustic piano might play the same notes, but they arrive at those pitches through completely different universes of physics and mathematics." #Music #MusicSky ericjamessoltys.substack.com/p/digital-vs...

100-day Leetcode badge. Last year was Typescript daily challenges and this year I'm doing C# daily challenges. Reminder that code challenges have *nothing* to do with the day-to-day work of a software developer.

New blog post: "If you've ever wondered why pianos have 12 keys per octave instead of 10 or 16... you're about to discover one of music's most elegant compromises." #music #history ericjamessoltys.substack.com/p/the-mathem...

Red-eyed Vireo added to my eBird life list merlinbirds.org/species/reev...

Installation by Tracey-Mae Chambers at the Kootenay Gallery #hopeandhealingcanada

Listened to new @twelvedaysinjune.bsky.social EP "From Now On" whole reading Absolute Batman. Creepy as fuck issue that's more like a horror comic. Dark defiance! 🤘 twelvedaysinjune.bandcamp.com/album/from-n...

"The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail" was a cool episode. That Scavenger ship looked like Sinistar. 💀 "I hunger!" Nice how they're shaping Kirk and the crew. #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds

New blog post: "Rubato — literally "robbed time" in Italian — is one of music's most expressive yet elusive concepts. It's the art of stretching and compressing tempo for emotional effect." #Music #MusicSky open.substack.com/pub/ericjame...

New blog post: “Click tracks represent one of the most contentious technological interventions in musical performance — a precision tool that some see as essential for modern music and others view as an artistic straitjacket.” #music #MusicSky ericjamessoltys.substack.com/p/the-pulse-...