WAV or FLAC & why

Is Java still needed with Minimserver-2 ?
I understood that it did not.

To use Minimserver 2 you need Java:

And you should disable Java usage by your browser.

Depends. You are right when installing Minim on a NAS. However when installed on the regular computer, where you also browse, it makes sense to verify that the installation of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) did not enable Java in the browser

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Yes, I know. Like I said, I am quite picky about it. It is also a lot of work and I would rather spend my rare free time listening to music, not tagging it. I work with computers all day long ā€¦
But alas, it is inevitable

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Why should I disable Java in my browser when Minim/JRE is running on my NAS? Apologies for the no doubt stupid non-technical question.

Roger

@Suedkiez, @anon39880737: MinimServer is typically installed on headless computers that run 24/7: NAS, RPi, NUC, etc. One doesnā€™t typically have any windowing system, desktop manager or web browser running on such devices. If one runs Java on a computer that is used for browsing, one should better check the browserā€™s security settings, of course. This, however, holds in general and has nothing to do with MinimServer.

ā€œtypicallyā€, who knows, I donā€™t. It was a valuable hint by @anon39880737 for a particular use case, as was yours for a different use case. Both comments are correct for their respective use cases, and stating the use case would have avoided confusion on either case

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Whoaaa! A Ā£10k streaming DAC that wonā€™t do gapless playback? I have many, many recordings of works with continuous movements split into individual tracks. Eg. In Beethovenā€˜ā€™s 5th symphony, the triumphant opening of the finale starts with a blaze of C Major and follows without pause from the third movement. So one of the supreme moments of western music is ruined by an unnecessary gap?

What is the world coming to? :thinking:

Roger

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Wow, that would be a deal breaker for me: even a gap of 1 second between tracks that are intended to join seemlessly one into the next would ruin the flow. I didnā€™t realise any serious player still did that!

It is on my imac

I must admit a playback system that artificially inserts gaps I would consider broken. Spacing and pausing between music, certainly classical and opera is part of the music. Convenient media indexing points shouldnā€™t interfere with the musicā€¦ it kind of sounds like to me tail wagging the dog.

(Also there is no excuse for it technically either)

Sorry for confusion. Java when usable via a browser on a regular pc is not secure these days. I canā€™t comment on its use on something like a NAS which doesnā€™t have a browser.

No disagree, JavaScript or compiled Java is secure unless as you are not reckless with your browser security settings ā€¦there are some common sense settings that you should set anyway. Disable XSS (Cross Site Scripting) an option in many browser security options, and prevent running inline JavaScript from untrusted URLs.
Also donā€™t use WebSites that authenticate on Cookiesā€¦ where identity is required ensure you use a username and password and the site is secureā€¦ ie has a trusted key symbol.
With that in mind JavaScrpt is going to be reasonably usable like other web languages and indeed many websites use this programming languageā€¦ it is the language powering many advanced websites

Simon, I apreciate you have a very good knowledge of IT, but I canā€™t wholly agree with the statement above - unless Ive read it out of context.
Whilst I use the NoScript utility to control Java and any other scripts that run in my browser, because often web sites connect to a multitude of other sites of which some can be hostile. Even the BBC has been found guilty of slinging malware from advertising space in the past!
I also use Little Snitch. If not familiar with it, it controls connection to domains and IPs by permissions and its recent graphical interface on the network monitor shows what a horrendous amount of connections some sites will try to connect to, if you allow everything.

This isnā€™t true - the Bartok runs perfectly well with Roon. Iā€™ve not tried gapless playback but I would expect it to be fine. The dCS app is ok but basic, and apart from using it for some setup, Iā€™ve not touched it since.

My point there is nothing intrinsically wrong with JavaScrptā€¦ which is used I suggest in most websites world wide, including this site.
However there are some basic hygiene practices both users and web site authors can do to prevent exploiting vulnerabilities ā€¦ which I point out.
I suggest the key thing is only transact and identify with web sites (username and password) that you trust.
Also disable XSS ā€¦ cross site scriptingā€¦ and that way you are not unduly adding further risks in using the web. Only allow JavaScrpt from domains you trust or are trustedā€¦ another security setting.

Without supporting JavaScrpt at all you will be denying much of the web including participating on this community site, but with the suggested protections you are helping protect yourself from bad site design that may have been compromised.
Ensure your web hygiene software is upto data.
If you are a corporate user, almost certainly your organization will be using appropriate web hygiene software to identify malware. Home users can use malware detection built into their OS (Windows or OSX) or third parties like Norton.

On an iPad, go Settings->Safari->Advanced then disable JavaScrptā€¦ then go to your favourite web sites, and see which ones you can still use or are severely reduced in capability.

BTW in Settings->Safari you can check XSS/Cross Site Scrpting is disabled.

Trying to understand what you corrected Solwisesteve on: not true that DCS only works properly with the DCS app, because it works with Roon? But if that is the case, aside from the fact that you said you donā€™t actually know if it actually manages to make the DCS do the thing that was the problem (gapless play), it seems bad for DCS owners to have to buy an expensive piece of software in order to do what should be a fundamental capability from the off.

Java is not JavaScript - two entirely different things.

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Indeedā€¦ Java is a high level language like C and is used (via the JVM intermediate state) to compile executable code that runs on a specific machine type, where as JavaScript is interpreted on many different machine types, although many language similaritiesā€¦ but they are not entirely different.
JavaScript is typically relevant in terms of web browsers and is parsed in real-time.
Java may well be used behind the scenes to compile system executable machine code in application servers, database servers etc.

Yes thatā€™s it - correcting that it doesnā€™t work with anything else. Thatā€™s not true, as I know it works fine with Roon.

Whether it works with other systems or not, I donā€™t know. (Iā€™d be a bit surprised if it didnā€™t to be honest, given how good it is with Roon).

(we can get into a whole other debate about whether, in the context of a Ā£12k player, a Ā£600 piece of software is a lot - if dCS invested as much in producing something as good as Roon, then the Bartok would be Ā£18-20k instead - and I know what Iā€™d prefer. Sure, it would be helpful if it worked perfectly with the dCS app - I agree there. But as they have to focus their funds somewhere, I think hardware is where Iā€™d prefer they did it, and the s/w in their DAC.)