cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/11699480

If, like me, you've relied on Fennec as a more tolerable version of Firefox for Android, you may have gotten some bad news in the latest F-droid update cycle.

Fennec has fallen so far behind on updates that serious security patches implemented by Mozilla in Firefox haven't been applied to the fork, and Fennec is therefore still breachable.

The developer responded two weeks ago that they were "short on time", and there still isn't a new, secure version available. This appears to be due to that recurring weak link in open source development: small teams, confronted by real life demands like time and money?

If, like me, you've relied on Fennec as a more tolerable version of Firefox for Android, you may have gotten some bad news in the latest F-droid update cycle.

Fennec has fallen so far behind on updates that serious security patches implemented by Mozilla in Firefox haven't been applied to the fork, and Fennec is therefore still breachable.

The developer responded two weeks ago that they were "short on time", and there still isn't a new, secure version available. This appears to be due to that recurring weak link in open source development: small teams, confronted by real life demands like time and money?

On my new phone I'm tempted to switch from LineageOS for microG to IodéOS, just for the ease of a dedicated installer. What are your experiences of pros and cons?

Bonus question, while I prefer full control of my phone, Iodé lists "uninstallable apps" as a feature(?) — what in the world are those?

Edited title for clarity

Since returning as show runner of Doctor Who, RTD has stated fairly confidently that he was going to make sure the show delivered one season per year going forward. That made the reduced episode count a bit easier to swallow... a tiny bit...

In the meantime, though, streaming companies have become more cautious splurging money on show commissions, and it seems that includes distributing deals like the Disney+ one that boosted Doctor Who budgets for the most recent season, as well the forthcoming, already filmed season.

Quoted from an interview with SFX magazine, RTD now says that we won't have a definitive answer about a third Ncuti Gatwa outing until season 2 has finished airing:

> It’s an industry decision, it's like any business – these things take time. I think the decision will come after the transmission of season two. That's what we're expecting, that's what we've always been heading towards.

Given the time it seems to take only producing 8 episodes and a special these days, that will likely mean at least an extra one year gap between seasons 2 and 3 airing, if the show is even renewed by all current production and distribution parties.

Maybe, just maybe the spin-off The war between the land and the sea can fill in such a gap, but only time will tell.

I do appreciate that the Lemmy Doctor Who communities are less prone to wild fan speculation and continuity semantics rabbit holes, I really do. Sometimes, though, I dip back onto the main subreddits, and boy, do they get into massive circle jerks over little things that only jar others slightly.

Having exposed myself to the fandom mind virus, but refusing to join the fray on Reddit, I'll just infodump my own head canon explanations to (apparently controversial) occurrences in the latest season of the show here:

Is the Shalka Doctor now unredacted from continuity?

In the episode "Rogue", holograms of the Doctor's past selves loop around 15 like an old iTunes cover gallery. One of them is clearly Richard E Grant, who played the a ninth Doctor in "Scream of the Shalka". The animated series was short-lived and written out of the show's canon when the 2005 revival show introduced Eccleston as the "authoritative" ninth Doctor.

IRL explanation: Russell T Davies thought it would be fun to throw in Grant's face in the line-up. There's probably not more to it.

My in-universe explanation: The eighth Doctor actually regenerated into the Shalka Doctor, but because the Time War happened and rewrote timelines several times over, 8's eventually solidified upon the events of "Night of the Doctor", where he instead regenerates into the War Doctor.

However, time being relative, the Shalka Doctor is still extant if only as a wisp of an individual timeline, because a) he is a time traveler and therefore a complex temporal event not easily erased, and b) the Time War left the time stream in such a disarray that he may exist in a state of flux (no, not that one), and either continues adventuring as an offshoot of the Doctor's timeline, or is suspended in some kind of quantum field just slightly removed from it.

Pretty handwavy, yes, but all of Who continuity sort of requires you to gesture wildly like the eleventh Doctor having a thought, just for it to make some sort of sense.

The Doctor "was a dad", but 15 "hasn't had children yet"?!

In "The legend of Ruby Sunday", the fifteenth Doctor talks about his granddaughter Susan, who traveled with the first Doctor in the early years of the show. He then pivots to saying that he hasn't had children yet.

This is despite several if not all NuWho Doctors having referred in some form to having been a dad — including 15, just a few episodes earlier, in "Boom"! So which is it?

IRL explanation: As above, Russell T Davies likes to throw in non sequitur comments and details that mess with people's understanding of the show's lore. On a positivist note, it keeps that lore dynamic and throws some mysteries out for himself or subsequent writers to glom onto, like the Morbius Doctors or "half human on my mother's side" of the past. If it doesn't stick, ignore it.

My in-universe explanation: Ignoring the extended universe here, we don't know a lot about the Doctor's life previous to "An unearthly child", and nearly none about their family relations. What we do know is that they are a very prolific time traveler, and as witnessed from 11 and 12's relationship with River Song, things tend to get complicated, and invariably nonlinear.

With that in mind, it's perfectly feasible that 15 or a future incarnation has a child (the birds and bees part, or possibly looms?) that, for whatever reason, they leave for their previous, Hartnell self to raise (be a father to). Heck, given the above Shalka Doctor explanation, he could be the father, and 15 would be off the hook. Exactly what can we assume about a Time Lord's sense of self when alternative timelines come into play?

Along with the Doctor's realization that they are an "adopted" Timeless Child, as well as Ruby's search for her bio-mum in the past season, this explanation plays nicely into the twin notions of parenthood as giving life to a child versus raising it. Add to this that the Doctor's relationship to his companions (post-Susan) have always been stories of found and/or extended family.

It all makes sense when you (don't) think (too hard) about it!

So there you have it, the Doctor Who Reddit post to end all Doctor Who Reddit posts, deliberately not posted to Reddit. The important TL;DR is, time is in flux, several things can be true at the same time, and don't break your mind thinking about a TV show.

Anything else that needs explaining?

[Edited to get rid of the quotation formatting]

cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/9913175

I do appreciate that the Lemmy Doctor Who communities are less prone to wild fan speculation and continuity semantics rabbit holes, I really do. Sometimes, though, I dip back onto the main subreddits, and boy, do they get into massive circle jerks over little things that only jar others slightly.

Having exposed myself to the fandom mind virus, but refusing to join the fray on Reddit, I'll just infodump my own head canon explanations to (apparently controversial) occurrences in the latest season of the show here:

Is the Shalka Doctor now unredacted from continuity?

In the episode "Rogue", holograms of the Doctor's past selves loop around 15 like an old iTunes cover gallery. One of them is clearly Richard E Grant, who played the a ninth Doctor in "Scream of the Shalka". The animated series was short-lived and written out of the show's canon when the 2005 revival show introduced Eccleston as the "authoritative" ninth Doctor.

IRL explanation: Russell T Davies thought it would be fun to throw in Grant's face in the line-up. There's probably not more to it.

My in-universe explanation: The eighth Doctor actually regenerated into the Shalka Doctor, but because the Time War happened and rewrote timelines several times over, 8's eventually solidified upon the events of "Night of the Doctor", where he instead regenerates into the War Doctor.

However, time being relative, the Shalka Doctor is still extant if only as a wisp of an individual timeline, because a) he is a time traveler and therefore a complex temporal event not easily erased, and b) the Time War left the time stream in such a disarray that he may exist in a state of flux (no, not that one), and either continues adventuring as an offshoot of the Doctor's timeline, or is suspended in some kind of quantum field just slightly removed from it.

Pretty handwavy, yes, but all of Who continuity sort of requires you to gesture wildly like the eleventh Doctor having a thought, just for it to make some sort of sense.

The Doctor "was a dad", but 15 "hasn't had children yet"?!

In "The legend of Ruby Sunday", the fifteenth Doctor talks about his granddaughter Susan, who traveled with the first Doctor in the early years of the show. He then pivots to saying that he hasn't had children yet.

This is despite several if not all NuWho Doctors having referred in some form to having been a dad — including 15, just a few episodes earlier, in "Boom"! So which is it?

IRL explanation: As above, Russell T Davies likes to throw in non sequitur comments and details that mess with people's understanding of the show's lore. On a positivist note, it keeps that lore dynamic and throws some mysteries out for himself or subsequent writers to glom onto, like the Morbius Doctors or "half human on my mother's side" of the past. If it doesn't stick, ignore it.

My in-universe explanation: Ignoring the extended universe here, we don't know a lot about the Doctor's life previous to "An unearthly child", and nearly none about their family relations. What we do know is that they are a very prolific time traveler, and as witnessed from 11 and 12's relationship with River Song, things tend to get complicated, and invariably nonlinear.

With that in mind, it's perfectly feasible that 15 or a future incarnation has a child (the birds and bees part, or possibly looms?) that, for whatever reason, they leave for their previous, Hartnell self to raise (be a father to). Heck, given the above Shalka Doctor explanation, he could be the father, and 15 would be off the hook. Exactly what can we assume about a Time Lord's sense of self when alternative timelines come into play?

Along with the Doctor's realization that they are an "adopted" Timeless Child, as well as Ruby's search for her bio-mum in the past season, this explanation plays nicely into the twin notions of parenthood as giving life to a child versus raising it. Add to this that the Doctor's relationship to his companions (post-Susan) have always been stories of found and/or extended family.

It all makes sense when you (don't) think (too hard) about it!

So there you have it, the Doctor Who Reddit post to end all Doctor Who Reddit posts, deliberately not posted to Reddit. The important TL;DR is, time is in flux, several things can be true at the same time, and don't break your mind thinking about a TV show.

Anything else that needs explaining?

[Edited to get rid of the quotation formatting]

I do appreciate that the Lemmy Doctor Who communities are less prone to wild fan speculation and continuity semantics rabbit holes, I really do. Sometimes, though, I dip back onto the main subreddits, and boy, do they get into massive circle jerks over little things that only jar others slightly.

Having exposed myself to the fandom mind virus, but refusing to join the fray on Reddit, I'll just infodump my own head canon explanations to (apparently controversial) occurrences in the latest season of the show here:

Is the Shalka Doctor now unredacted from continuity?

In the episode "Rogue", holograms of the Doctor's past selves loop around 15 like an old iTunes cover gallery. One of them is clearly Richard E Grant, who played the a ninth Doctor in "Scream of the Shalka". The animated series was short-lived and written out of the show's canon when the 2005 revival show introduced Eccleston as the "authoritative" ninth Doctor.

IRL explanation: Russell T Davies thought it would be fun to throw in Grant's face in the line-up. There's probably not more to it.

My in-universe explanation: The eighth Doctor actually regenerated into the Shalka Doctor, but because the Time War happened and rewrote timelines several times over, 8's eventually solidified upon the events of "Night of the Doctor", where he instead regenerates into the War Doctor.

However, time being relative, the Shalka Doctor is still extant if only as a wisp of an individual timeline, because a) he is a time traveler and therefore a complex temporal event not easily erased, and b) the Time War left the time stream in such a disarray that he may exist in a state of flux (no, not that one), and either continues adventuring as an offshoot of the Doctor's timeline, or is suspended in some kind of quantum field just slightly removed from it.

Pretty handwavy, yes, but all of Who continuity sort of requires you to gesture wildly like the eleventh Doctor having a thought, just for it to make some sort of sense.

The Doctor "was a dad", but 15 "hasn't had children yet"?!

In "The legend of Ruby Sunday", the fifteenth Doctor talks about his granddaughter Susan, who traveled with the first Doctor in the early years of the show. He then pivots to saying that he hasn't had children yet.

This is despite several if not all NuWho Doctors having referred in some form to having been a dad — including 15, just a few episodes earlier, in "Boom"! So which is it?

IRL explanation: As above, Russell T Davies likes to throw in non sequitur comments and details that mess with people's understanding of the show's lore. On a positivist note, it keeps that lore dynamic and throws some mysteries out for himself or subsequent writers to glom onto, like the Morbius Doctors or "half human on my mother's side" of the past. If it doesn't stick, ignore it.

My in-universe explanation: Ignoring the extended universe here, we don't know a lot about the Doctor's life previous to "An unearthly child", and nearly none about their family relations. What we do know is that they are a very prolific time traveler, and as witnessed from 11 and 12's relationship with River Song, things tend to get complicated, and invariably nonlinear.

With that in mind, it's perfectly feasible that 15 or a future incarnation has a child (the birds and bees part, or possibly looms?) that, for whatever reason, they leave for their previous, Hartnell self to raise (be a father to). Heck, given the above Shalka Doctor explanation, he could be the father, and 15 would be off the hook. Exactly what can we assume about a Time Lord's sense of self when alternative timelines come into play?

Along with the Doctor's realization that they are an "adopted" Timeless Child, as well as Ruby's search for her bio-mum in the past season, this explanation plays nicely into the twin notions of parenthood as giving life to a child versus raising it. Add to this that the Doctor's relationship to his companions (post-Susan) have always been stories of found and/or extended family.

It all makes sense when you (don't) think (too hard) about it!

So there you have it, the Doctor Who Reddit post to end all Doctor Who Reddit posts, deliberately not posted to Reddit. The important TL;DR is, time is in flux, several things can be true at the same time, and don't break your mind thinking about a TV show.

Anything else that needs explaining?

> Ruth Madeley is now confirmed to be reprising her role as UNIT's scientific advisor Shirley Anne Bingham in the spin-off.

> Though fans might have anticipated Shirley's appearance in The War Between The Land And The Sea, the second new cast member is rather more surprising... > > Colin McFarlane will also appear in the series as General Austin Pierce, a role he last played in the 2009 miniseries Torchwood: Children of Earth – 15 years ago.

Good to see Madeley back on screen! Her replacement in the recent season by Lenny Rush did give us another memorable UNIT character, but I'm looking forward to see more of Shirley.

Now, my memory of "Children of Earth" is a bit rusty, but iirc General Pierce will probably be wary of invaders from another world after that experience... We can hope that is the reasoning for his inclusion in this storyline?

> co-creator Alexander Woo told The Hollywood Reporter: "There was another sequence that was really fun and played really well and would have been a fantastic cameo appearance for an actor that I don’t want to name —because I don’t want to make someone feel bad for being cut out of the show. > >"However, it is a former Doctor Who, I’ll say that much. Fans of that would probably would have found it delightful. But for the sake of the rest of the episode, we had to set it aside." > > DB Weiss joked: "Jon Pertwee – 124 years old and still showed up."

Leave it to the former GoT showrunners to casually axe a high profile cameo. Apparently even their cutting room floor is like a Red Wedding.

So we'll never know which surviving Doctor didn't make the final edit, but speculation is fun, and free. Go nuts in the comments 🙂

Probably a hot take for everybody who just wants a drop-in replacement for Reddit, but I think a new platform needs to take the opportunity to improve over what's gone before.

So what I'm proposing is a more granular approach to curating one's feed on an individual user level, much like both Mastodon and apps for that platform offer (I'm going to use Tusky as an example because I've used that for a while and know its features fairly well).

Imagine a filter list where you could block specific terms, source URLs or other. No more irrelevant mentions of whatever annoys the hell out of you when you open /all. Along with your individual block list, limited as that is, it would help you as a user to home in on what matters to you.

Might this create filter bubbles? Yes, but if it's implemented on a per user level it won't affect other users' feeds. The "bubble" is a one-person act. In my experience /all on both Reddit and Lemmy suffers from people trying to curate it to their personal liking with downvotes, which just creates a monoculture.

Personally, I think free text filters would help solve that problem, and might aid users in engaging with their preferred communities. Suggestions, ideas?

> Davies addressed the fan theory that Mrs Flood is former companion Romana as she was wearing a similar costume - and he didn't quite rule it out. > > […] "Probably because she’s wearing white fur, people are going to think she’s [Time Lord companion] Romana, aren’t they?" > > Davies added: "I promise you answers to that. […]"

> ...being on Disney Plus now, this is a very deliberate choice to bring back an old BBC enemy – we've even cast the same actor [Gabriel Woolf] – to prove that the show hasn't severed its roots. To delve into your backstory is a very fine thing. That's thrilling for new viewers, and for old viewers it's a great reward. > > Also, you're guaranteed that the internet will do your work for you. In the old days, you could feasibly have said, 'Will people know who Sutekh is?' Now, it's on our official site. It's on our Instagram posts. Type in the word 'Sutekh' and there's an entire Wikipedia article, full of the history.

cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/8396158

> I've used LineageOS with microG on my Oneplus 6 for years — so happily, in fact, that I haven't bothered with major updates since version 17 (Android 10). Oops! > > Now I've been flashing updates to an older phone, and I might as well continue getting my daily driver up to date. I'm going to dirty flash my way up to the current version (21). But I'm rusty as all heck, and the upgrade instructions seem to have changed since last: > > 1. Back in '21 I recall being recommended to disable screenlock (fingerprint/PIN/pattern, etc) before upgrading. Is that still a thing? > 2. With a/b slot devices it used to be necessary to flash ROMs twice or use a copy-partitions or simiilar zip file. The instructions make no mention of it, is that rolled into the upgrade package now? > 3. Finally, is it safe to just upgrade directly from LOS/mG v18 to v21? Because neither LOS main or the mG branch seem to archive older versions but I'd hate to miss some system update or other. > > All help is appreciated! > > Edited for clarity: > Please don't offer suggestions on "better" phones or OSes — my question regards the above only. Thanks in advance 👍

cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/8396158

> I've used LineageOS with microG on my Oneplus 6 for years — so happily, in fact, that I haven't bothered with major updates since version 17 (Android 10). Oops! > > Now I've been flashing updates to an older phone, and I might as well continue getting my daily driver up to date. I'm going to dirty flash my way up to the current version (21). But I'm rusty as all heck, and the upgrade instructions seem to have changed since last: > > 1. Back in '21 I recall being recommended to disable screenlock (fingerprint/PIN/pattern, etc) before upgrading. Is that still a thing? > 2. With a/b slot devices it used to be necessary to flash ROMs twice or use a copy-partitions or simiilar zip file. The instructions make no mention of it, is that rolled into the upgrade package now? > 3. Finally, is it safe to just upgrade directly from LOS/mG v18 to v21? Because neither LOS main or the mG branch seem to archive older versions but I'd hate to miss some system update or other. > > All help is appreciated! > > Edited for clarity: > Please don't offer suggestions on "better" phones or OSes — my question regards the above only. Thanks in advance 👍

I've used LineageOS with microG on my Oneplus 6 for years — so happily, in fact, that I haven't bothered with major updates since version 17 (Android 10). Oops!

Now I've been flashing updates to an older phone, and I might as well continue getting my daily driver up to date. I'm going to dirty flash my way up to the current version (21). But I'm rusty as all heck, and the upgrade instructions seem to have changed since last:

1. Back in '21 I recall being recommended to disable screenlock (fingerprint/PIN/pattern, etc) before upgrading. Is that still a thing?
2. With a/b slot devices it used to be necessary to flash ROMs twice or use a copy-partitions or simiilar zip file. The instructions make no mention of it, is that rolled into the upgrade package now?
3. Finally, is it safe to just upgrade directly from LOS/mG v18 to v21? Because neither LOS main or the mG branch seem to archive older versions but I'd hate to miss some system update or other.

All help is appreciated!

Edited for clarity: Please don't offer suggestions on "better" phones or OSes — my question regards the above only. Thanks in advance 👍

No conflict of interest, I only saw the poject via Mastodon.

From the website:

> Fediverse, Mastodon, and beyond

> Gorgeous album pages

> Audio streaming

> Tour dates and tickets

> Music discovery? Online sales? Analytics? There's a lot more in store as the community grows.

>From the tense landmine of Boom to uncovering the events of the night that Ruby was born in Empire of Death, this season of Doctor Who certainly had it all – but which episode was the best? > >Well, we posed that exact question to RadioTimes.com readers, who have responded in their droves. > >With the likes of Space Babies, The Devil's Chord, Dot and Bubble and all the other season 14 episodes to choose from, there was one clear winner. > >After more than 4,000+ votes in total, [redacted] was the winner of the best episode in our exclusive poll.

The Doctor's granddaughter has been teased on screen throughout this recent season, fan theories abound and original actor Carole Ann Ford has stated she'd be happy to reappear on the show.

Let's assume that there is a reunion with Susan coming up; that would be exciting in itself, but narratively, how do you think it will be set up? Does the Doctor seek her out or will Susan find her grandfather first?

More to the point, "the Doctor finally sees Susan again" is just a story beat — how do you imagine the larger science fantasy story context surrounding it? Feel free to fanfic an entire episode plot or season arc if you want 🙂

I've used Openbox as a minimal DE replacement for years, with Tint2 as panel and pseudo launcher. When I switched to EndeavourOS a couple of years ago Rofi came pre-installed along with those as window switcher, search and app launcher.

At the time it seemed superfluous and I just flat out uninstalled it, but now I'm coming around to maybe ditching Tint2 (and the stodgy old JGmenu that EndeavourOS uses) in favour of using Rofi as a search based launcher and menu.

I can imagine it'll be an abrupt transition but my question for the more seasoned Rofi users out there is, what should I look out for and what are your immediate caveats?

In amongst the exciting teasers and promo tidbits ahead of the new season, for some reason I find this deep cut of production lore one of the most entertaining:

Ncuti Gatwa was adamant that he grow his moustache back for the part of the Doctor, having shaved for years to play a teenager in Sex education. But there was a short overlap where he was filming both shows simultaneously — so he would have to be cleanshaven for the first shoots of Doctor Who, too. Barring the weird Henry Cavill CGI upper lip retouch, how would the crew solve this?

> "Bella [Arghiros], my make-up artist, would present me with a little bag of pubes every morning," he explains. He doesn’t mean this literally, but he and Gibson are now laughing so much they can barely get the words out. "I went through the process of sticking them on for two months," he says. > > "Trimming them," whoops Gibson. "Between every take," adds Gatwa. "As they flap off in the wind. I’m chasing a monster and the director says, 'We’ll have to go again because his moustache is half off.' So when it grew back, I felt very liberated."

The actors' giddiness goes a long way selling this anecdote... If the new season is half as fun as they seem to have had making it, it'll be [Eccleston impersonation] fantastic!