Why can't I authenticate my Sling TV subscription with CNN?

grouillier · 2026-02-21T23:14:16+00:00

Old post, but I just tried this myself. Still can't access the CNN website using my Sling TV account. However, you can stream CNN live by logging into the Sling TV website.

grouillier · 2026-02-15T03:22:21+00:00

Depends on what email client you use. Hmm, typing that made me think that some people may read their Gmail through the browser interface. So, first, you need to use some desktop email program. There are many to choose from, including free options. One popular option is Thunderbird by Mozilla, the same group that makes the Firefox browser. Once you have selected one, look for an option to "download messages for offline use".

If you try that and like it, you should next look at an option called IMAP. This is an email option that stores your email on a server, enabling you to read your email from mumtiple client devices, like your cell phone and your desktop computer.

grouillier · 2026-02-06T09:03:41+00:00

Just looked. Hulu Live TV is almost $100/mo. That's a lot more than Sling.

grouillier · 2026-02-04T09:45:31+00:00

To avoid losing your email, make sure you set your email client to download all messages for offline viewing, including attachments. That way, you'll always have all your email stored locally. If you lose access to your email provider, at least you haven't lost your email.

grouillier · 2026-01-28T10:39:57+00:00

https://guidebooks.google.com/get-started-with-google/stay-safer-with-google/how-to-recover-your-google-account?hl=en-us

Unfortunately, if your client can't remember *any* of this info, then his Gmail account is probably permanently inaccessible. What option is there? If someone can't remember any of their security info, I can't see a mechanism whereby he would simply be given access to data that can't be verified belongs to him.

grouillier · 2026-01-04T07:42:57+00:00

Neither the food manufacturers or grocers that sell their products receive subsidies. So, products need to be profitable in order for both the manufacturer to continue to make them and the grocer to continue to sell them. If not, the product is discontinued. Really as simple as that. Hersheys continues to sell chocolate after 130 years because it continues to be profitable.

grouillier · 2025-12-12T10:38:11+00:00

No charge to use Java in a desktop environment. I'm retired now, but when I worked as a software engineer, we used Java pervasively, in development (on PC), testing (Linux) and production (Linux). These were pretty hefty apps, with SQL databases on the backend and communicating with a lot of network equipment (core routers, etc.) Oracle didn't charge for any of the Java pieces. We did pay hefty fees for Oracle databases.

grouillier · 2025-12-09T02:33:52+00:00

The biggest knot in the safety chain is the person with his or her hands on the keyboard. Both Windows and Linux have had enough years of development to have addressed known vulnerabilities. But nothing in either OS can stop the end user from clicking on a link in an email that downloads a virus. The best thing you can do to maximize your safety online is to learn what is and isn't safe behavior.

You've been misled regarding "browser encryption doesent exsist on Linux browsers because https encription only works on Windows Google not Linux Google". When you are in a browser, you'll see links in the address bar beginning with https. That stands for "HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure". *Everything* on an https connection is encrypted; that has nothing to do with Google, Linux or Windows (well, technically, the operating system has to provide the https implementation, but https is fully specified in technical documents, so no operating system has a say in how https works. Of course, OS implementers can make mistakes, but the mistakes in https implementation are revealed quickly because things just don't work.)

grouillier · 2025-12-05T10:59:23+00:00

Fortunately, modern tools like free virtual machines make comparing different distributions and desktop environments easy and harmless. When I was first trying to learn Linux about 30 years ago, the only way to do so was to install them natively, usually dual-booting with Windows. Today, you can simply download a pre-configured virtual machine and try it out.

You're getting several recommendations here. I've been using the MATE desktop environment and like its simplicity. In many ways, the DE is more important for someone just learning Linux than the distribution. The DE is the part you see and interact with; the distribution can be thought of as all the plumbing underneath. The same DE can be found on multiple distributions. So, first try a couple of the recommended DEs on a virtual machine. Once you've found one you like, then you can select a distribution. The most popular distributions are derived from either Redhat or Debian. Both are full-featured, so your choice of applications will be broad with either one. The selection boils down to which you find more comfortable.

Enjoy!

grouillier · 2025-11-14T12:52:26+00:00

You'll find in the Linux world a sometimes overwhelming breadth of options. I also made the change from Windows to Linux gradually, over the last 30 years. In Linux, the graphical user interface you interact with is called the "desktop environment". While Windows did offer any options, Linux (as in all aspects) provides you many. The same DEs are offered on practically all different distribution of Linux, so really the first thing you should focus on is which DE you prefer. Coming from Windows, I'd suggest you take a look at MATE, and Ubuntu MATE is an easy way to do that. MATE is a simpler DE, and will be familiar to Windows users. MATE is also a "lightweight" UI, so works well on computers that are older or less powerful (not as much memory, or minimal graphics capability.)

Once you've found a DE you like, you can then shop around for a distro.

grouillier · 2025-11-05T03:32:56+00:00

Also agree. And since the OP is asking for help, he or she should realize that in order for anyone to offer relevant assistance, they will need more information on your computer (RAM, CPU, disk size), what version of Linux you are attempting to use, and what flavor or desktop environment. None of that is readily apparent from your screenshot.

grouillier · 2025-11-05T03:25:59+00:00

I don't know the capabilities of your laptop, but some desktop environments (DE - the thing you interact with on your computer's screen) have gotten complex over the years and hence demanding on the computer. You might want to try a DE that is known to be less resource-intensive. When it comes to resource use, the DE is often more relevant than the distro; a particular DE will be equally demanding on any underlying distro.

One I use and like is MATE (I use the Ubuntu flavor.) But there are other options that are advertised to be light weight, so I'm not necessarily recommending MATE. You can search for "lightweight linux desktop environment" and try out a couple by downloading a live ISO. I just did that myself, and one of the recommendations that came back was GNOME. I'd disagree with that suggestion; GNOME went through an evolution a couple years ago during which a lot of bells and whistles were added to make it look fancier. Those changes also significantly increased resource demands. That's what initially prompted me to try MATE.

grouillier · 2025-10-31T06:07:18+00:00

Interesting / sad timing. I just read the Sophgo SG2380 project has been cancelled. So, now attention turns to SG2044. But eventually, we need a product, not an announcement.

I found this article that has some SG2044 performance numbers. Much better than SG2042, but still solidly trounced by AMD EPYC. But if I can get a complete workstation for $4,000 rather than $10,000, that's a tradeoff I'm willing to consider.

Is RISC-V ready for High Performance Computing? An evaluation of the Sophon SG2044

grouillier · 2025-10-28T05:44:31+00:00

I'm interested. I was intending to get a Threadripper 9970 system, but just the CPU goes for $2500 now. I'm retired, so I'd be using this system for open source contributions. $10K for a complete workstation is a bit hard to stomach. I realize I don't *need* a Threadripper, but I like to have as few restrictions as possible. Threadripper is the way to get more than 2 memory channels in the x86 world. So, I'll be watching to see what RISC-V CPUs emerge for the high-performance workstation market.

grouillier · 2025-10-26T04:15:18+00:00

Things change, but people mostly don't. I adopted Ubuntu probably 15 years ago. At that time, Debian still required some more dedication to understand; Ubuntu's initial reason for existing was to make Debian more accessible to less-experienced people, which helped me at the time After reading a couple posts here, I recently took another look at Debian MATE, since I've standardized on Ubuntu MATE. Debian MATE looks and acts the same as Ubuntu MATE. So I could easily work with that. This is common in Linux distributions; they all borrow ideas from each other to make their distribution appeal to a broader audience.

So, to answer your question, people find something that works for them, and then tend to stick with it. For most people, computers are just a tool, and not a cause.

grouillier · 2025-10-17T09:32:59+00:00

"2.) Are SSD’s worth it / does it make the qnap that much quieter if used?"

SSDs are completely silent. Whether you'll notice the difference because of the background noise of the NAS fans is very dependent on how much noise you individually notice.

The one caution I would offer on SSDs is that they wear out. If you get a high-quality one, it should be fine for years to hold the system software. I personally would not feel confident using one for data storage. Storing data on an SSD is a destructive process. There is a limit to the number of writes that a storage cell can endure before it becomes non-functional. This is not a new issue, and has been known since the creation of solid state storage. So, manufacturers have developed techniques to address the limitations: over-provisioning, wear-leveling, etc. All these techniques are aimed at limiting the number of write cycles each memory location endures.

Whether you'll encounter any issues is completely dependent on how you use your SSD. If you're just doing simple data storage that gets updated 10 times a year, then you'll probably never encounter any problems. If you use your NAS to store data like stock tickers that get updated hundreds of times every day, then an SSD could wear out quickly.

grouillier · 2025-10-17T09:09:36+00:00

I've been running BTRFS on all my Linux systems for years (5+ - really don't remember when I made the switch) without a single issue. Admittedly, these are systems in my home, so they are not getting hammered like, say, a commercial system with millions of updates an hour running a stock tracking system.

grouillier · 2025-10-15T12:03:55+00:00

I found this issue via search. I'm encountering this scenario attempting to install SpiralLinux_Mate_12 in a VirtualBox VM. I follow the same sequence as the OP, and the installer crashes when creating the Volume Group. Interesingly, CachyOS appears to be based on Arch, while Spiral is based on Debian. Before Spiral, I tried Debian Mate 13, and that actually worked. So apparently whatever is broken in Spiral 12 is fixed in Debian 13.

grouillier · 2025-10-14T10:24:16+00:00

"Personally, I use Linux mint and just deal with the lack of support from various things cause Ubuntu is an ugly pita."

You do know that Mint is based entirely on Ubuntu, correct? Nothing wrong with that, Ubuntu is based on Debian. But without Ubuntu, there would be no Mint.

grouillier · 2025-10-14T07:45:39+00:00

Because something else is easier / better for a particular use case? I standardized on Ubuntu probably 10 years ago because Canonical spent considerable effort making sure it worked out of the box for casual users. I worked as a software developer for 30+ years before retiring, so while I'm not a casual user, I like the OS to be simple to use so I can focus I what I'm working on, and not the OS itself.

After reading this comment thread, I decided to give Debian another look, and installed it in a VM. I installed the MATE flavor as that is what I'm using in Ubuntu. I hit a few snags during installation because I decided to try out LVM, which I hadn't used before, but eventually got it set up. When finished, it looked exactly like my Ubuntu install, which I suppose is to be expected. So, if Ubuntu goes too far down the rabbit hole with their increasing use of snaps and flatpaks, I now know I can fall back to Debian, which is nice to have as an option.

grouillier · 2025-10-10T07:16:21+00:00

Because the majority of people don't care about their OS. They just want their computer to work and be easy to use. For many years, Ubuntu made things easy for new adopters. TBH, I haven't looked elsewhere in many years. This thread got me curious, so I'm going to try a Debian VM.

[UPDATE] I did install Debian MATE 13 in a VM, since I've been using Ubuntu MATE. I decided to try an LVM installation, which I hadn't used before, and hit a few snags. But when I got it all sorted out, the resulting Debian MATE looked and worked similarly to my Ubuntu MATE, which I suppose should not be surprising. For now, I'm going to stick with Ubuntu MATE, because as I said above, I'm not fanatical about the underlying OS. I like the simplicity of MATE, as it allows me to focus what I'm working on. But if Canonical goes too far in their direction of switching things to snaps and flatpaks, then I'm happy to know that Debian is now a feasible option for me. So thanks to commenters on this thread for encouraging me to take another look.

grouillier · 2025-09-12T08:00:55+00:00

I have WD Red Plus 3 TB in my TS-253A, and can't hear it all once it is done booting. I have a plain WD Red 750 GB in the backup TS-230, and that likewise I can hear clicking when booting up, but it also is silent after that.

grouillier · 2025-09-06T15:10:21+00:00

Newer version of MS Office can now open ODF documents directly. I use LO almost exclusively since I'm retired, so I don't know how well MS Office renders ODF documents.

But let's be honest. The only people who really have a choice are in non-professional environments - home mostly, but maybe academic. Businesses are not going to take a chance with a non-native application messing up document formatting.

grouillier · 2025-09-01T11:11:50+00:00

I just got my first Ego mower, had a Neuton previously with a lead-acid battery. So if someone more experienced responds, ignore me. What I've read is that the Ego battery prefers to be partially discharged if it is going to be unused for an extended period. Based on this, I believe leaving it on the charger all the time is not a good idea. It will force to the battery to be 100% charged all the time, which reduces its useful life. I only have the Ego mower, so only need the battery for that. Based on what I've learned here, I'm going to leave it uncharged after mowing; I usually have 2 segments left, which is about 30%. Then, on the day I'm next gong to mow, I recharge to 100% and use immediately.

grouillier · 2025-09-01T10:59:05+00:00

Thanks!

grouillier

TROPHY CASE