In 2018, there will be innovations, but no jobs

There will be innovations, but no jobs:

• Trends 2017: The disconnect between growth and employment (International Labour Organization - United Nation) 
• A New Chart Conclusively Proves That Automation is a Serious Threat ... to employment.  (2017)
• “My reading of the data is that technology is the main driver of the recent increases in inequality. It’s the biggest factor,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor of management at MIT (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/531726/technology-and-inequality/ 2014) 
• Can humans thrive in the bot economy? (Dominic Price - Atlassian - 2017) https://www.atlassian.com/blog/it-teams/can-humans-thrive-in-the-bot-economy

The current response is "losers go to hell":

• Americans are dying younger than people in other rich nations (The Washington Post - 2017)  
• Top 10 Anti-Homeless Measures Used in the United States  (2014)
• "Defensive Architecture"  How Aggressive Architecture Designs the Homeless Out of the Public Realm (ArchDaily 2017)

It might not be sustainable, since losers can still vote ...

• European politics: leaders struggle to contain rising populism (Financial Times - 2017)

Will 2018 bring an answer? (other than Trump/Poutine duo)

That is my happy prediction :-)

Music in 2017

Not a lot, I guess I did not take note of all I liked this year, but anyway here it is:

• From Nathalie Piolé (Banzzaï) 
• Bloodshot (Hubert Laws) 1966  
• I listened to a ton of Laws tunes on YouTube, this one is good too: The Baron
• Kellylee Evans "Lose Yourself" multiple versions exists (pianist Eric Legnini) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCbnTaPTO50 & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whhI4Bmr_HU 
• Mediterraneo (Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic VIII) Stefano Bollani : Chi Mai  
• Psychotic Symphony - Sons of Apollo (full of funny clichés) via Loic Descotte best of.
• Knower "Time Traveler": still excellent
• I don't remember where I found "Weird Part of the Night" by Louis Cole, but it genius.
• A mashup of Coltrane's "Mars" and Sunn O))) "Rabbit's Revenge"  (via Adam Neely)
• Emel Mathlouthi http://EmelMathlouthi.com/ (via Paste Magazine) January
• YouTube Artists: 
• Leo Morachiolli ; Mateus Asato still excellent
• Good vibes from Unfa (Tobiasz Karoń): https://www.youtube.com/user/unfa00/videos
• Slow down and practice with Eric Haugen https://www.youtube.com/user/ebhaugen
• Rick Beato, a bit complicated and long, but sometimes interesting
• Learn with 12tone 
• Early Music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJOiqToQ7kiakqTLE7Hdd5g/featured
• Adam Neely still interesting.

I think I will spend less time listening to educational music video and more time practicing with Android Apps like "ear trainer".

Ear training

Resources about ear training:

Associate with a known song:

• https://flypaper.soundfly.com/tips/interval-cheat-sheet-songs-to-help-you-remember-common-intervals/  
• via Ben Levin who hsa fun games to play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWA6HwScQh8
• Even bigger list https://www.earmaster.com/products/free-tools/interval-song-chart-generator.html
• Jazz Duets develops the same idea  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayRD8TjPuCI

Counter argument from  Julian Bradley of "Jazz Tutorial" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz-U0X7LBRA

Finally, Adam Neely has a good overview on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q4MWdHhgfM

There are very good apps for Android !  Here are just 3 that I use:

• Functional Ear Trainer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kaizen9.fet.android&hl=en
• ChordProg Ear Trainer https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ChordFunc.ChordProgPro&hl=en 
• Perfect Ear - Ear Trainer https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en

Encoding/Decoding in Java 9 using javax.xml.bind or not

DatatypeConverter and Java 9

If you used to do conversions, like

import javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter;
...

byte[] bin = DatatypeConverter.parseHexBinary("0769cc");


With Java 9 you will get errors, since javax.xml.bind is no longer in the module path, it is considered part of Java Enterprise. With Java 10 it may even be removed from the JRE.

It is a known problem:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43574426/how-to-resolve-java-lang-noclassdeffounderror-javax-xml-bind-jaxbexception-in-j
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/140131/convert-a-string-representation-of-a-hex-dump-to-a-byte-array-using-java 

There are many solutions: Rewriting the function or Using command line option to load the library at runtime ...  But the most robust and long term one seems to be adding the dependency to your project.

Here I will focus on adding the dependency:

Java Enterprise library 

As a Maven dependency:

<dependency>
     <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
     <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
     <version>2.3.0</version>
</dependency>

Directly in IntelliJ (Community edition):

Guava

Guava also provides conversion methods, but you will have to adapt your code:

https://github.com/google/guava/wiki/PrimitivesExplained#byte-conversion-methods

Apache Common

Same for Apache Commons. It is a matter of taste.

http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-codec/

org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Hex(str.toCharArray())

November summary - 2017-11

11 November

Security

• Container security https://opensource.com/article/17/10/10-layers-container-security
• Real containers (funny example) https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/sinking-container-ships-by-hacking-load-plan-software/
• Really bad: "Savitech USB audio drivers install a new root CA certificate" https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/446847

Political

• We know it, just like tax evasion, we lack the courage to act accordingly https://futurism.com/new-chart-proves-automation-serious-threat/
• (Same as in France, but USA has Open Data) politicians care more and more about their party and less about their country: http://www.mamartino.com/projects/rise_of_partisanship/
• Engineer responsibility:
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-sentencing/vw-engineer-sentenced-to-40-month-prison-term-in-diesel-case-idUSKCN1B51YP

AI

• About explaining AI, Martin Fowler: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/MachineJustification.html
• Adversarial Image, where AI fails in non-human way.
  • https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/2/16597276/google-ai-image-attacks-adversarial-turtle-rifle-3d-printed
  • https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/12/15271874/ai-adversarial-images-fooling-attacks-artificial-intelligence
• More on AI decisions https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609495/ai-can-be-made-legally-accountable-for-its-decisions/#
• Limits of AI https://medium.com/@francois.chollet/the-impossibility-of-intelligence-explosion-5be4a9eda6ec

Music

• Kellylee Evans "Lose Yourself" multiple versions exists (pianist Eric Legnini) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCbnTaPTO50 & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whhI4Bmr_HU
• Mediterraneo (Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic VIII) Stefano Bollani : Chi Mai http://www.deezer.com/us/album/48061522
• Knower "Time Traveler": still high https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhtcG79kPNw