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I believe it was removed because of the high risk of fingerprinting and inability to safeguard it from sending malicious data to devices (some devices do firmw
by dagmx 4y ago
I believe it was removed because of the high risk of fingerprinting and inability to safeguard it from sending malicious data to devices (some devices do firmware updates over MIDI)
- smoldesu 4y agoEverything that updates firmware over MIDI should have an explicit "update" mode on the hardware itself. No MIDI instruments I've ever used are writable by-default. Also, fingerprinting is easy to avoid here. Firefox leaves MIDI off entirely until you opt-in to avoid random websites picking it up. Safari could do the same, presumably.
- jacquesm 4y agoIndeed, small problem: the opt-in dialog box doesn't appear, so for now no luck.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- brudgers 4y agoI don’t doubt your experience. Firmware over midi was not uncommon for older equipment because the alternative was swapping out EPROMs if the instrument did not have an FD drive…and around Y2K, unavailability of older chips could mean replacing sockets or going without (so mostly going without).
- dagmx 4y agoI forget the exact device model because it’s been a decade plus, but I definitely did have a device that was upgraded over MIDI without requiring a separate mode. That is definitely an issue with the device, but I don’t know how common or uncommon that is for much older equipment
- ta988 4y agoEvery MIDI device I own (all less than 10yo can take updates over MIDI) and two of them use webmidi (or a standalone program) for it.
- SeanLuke 4y agoMost Waldorf synthesizers are updated just by sending MIDI sysex to them. The same goes for nearly all DSI/Sequential machines, as well as M-Audio and Novation, among many other manufacturers.
- smoldesu 4y agoSure, but if you're using your DX7 to control MIDI through Firefox I think you'd be aware of those pitfalls.
- bzzzt 4y agoThose are a bit more modern devices which have enough memory they could (an probably do) use a signed firmware image so it's not possible to brick them by flashing random garbage to the eeprom.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- SeanLuke 4y agoWaldorf's been doing this since at least the Microwave II/XT, circa 1997. Not positive they had the memory to avoid bricking at that time.