Support forum expert, but why?

I've been a Roku user for years. And I've frequented the Roku support forum for almost as long. Less than a year after I bought my first Roku device, I logged on the Roku user support forum. The reason was that I had an issue. I don't recall the details, but it was that an app worked on other platforms, but not on Roku. That much I recall. And that was when I began to learn more and more about how things work.

I've always been fascinated with technology. Perhaps the idea of living with technology that sounded like it came from Star Trek was the thing. Maybe not. I don't know. But, I've always been fascinated by it, and Roku was my first venture into the world of streaming, back in 2010.

Since that first request for help, I think I may have asked for help with a couple of other issues in 2011, and maybe in 2012. But that was it. If that much.

However, I've been a frequenter of the support forums for years. Often I'd just read and learn, but occasionally, I'd chime in with responses. In the last few years, my time on the Roku support forums has increased greatly. And the number of people I've helped has increased as well.

In the last four years -- that how far back the stats go -- I've been credited with 275 solutions. That's official credits, either by the user with the initial issue, or by Roku staff. Additionally, others have stated that my answer solved the problem but they didn't officially mark it as such. And, lots more times, the answer I gave was right but there was no acknowledgement of it. But officially, I have 275 solutions provided.

I like that. I like the idea that I was able to help someone solve a problem. So, is that why I do it? Yeah, probably. Maybe I'm guilty of wanting to be the smartest person in the room. Well, on the Roku support forum, that's hard to do. Some of the Roku Community Experts really know their stuff. Every one of them that have that bestowed upon them by Roku really know their stuff. Including me.

Now, I still learn stuff, and I in no way think that I know everything. If I don't know the answer, I won't respond with "I don't know." Well, not often. But I have done that, but it was to help summarize the question posted. Sometimes, the person posting has no idea what's wrong or even know how to ask the question. So, sometimes, if I think I understand what's being asked, but aren't entirely sure I understand the question, I'll respond in an attempt to restate the question. Or ask the person posting to restate. That's not to put anyone down, but an attempt to elicit information.

Sometimes, I've discovered that I had no idea what the question really was, and once I found out, backed away. Sometimes, if it's outside an area with which I'm extremely familiar, I'll post some general steps, with requests for additional information. Sometimes, those general steps actually resolve the problem. That's usually the old "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" kind of troubleshooting step.

So, do I do Roku support to stroke my ego? Maybe. I do enjoy challenges. And it's fun. Sometimes. But not all the time.

It does offer the chance to learn something, but I really do enjoy the thought that perhaps I've helped someone improve their Streaming Life.

Independence Day 2022

One of the most important documents in world history is the United States Declaration of Independence. If you've never read it, it may be worth reading. It gives you a glimpse into history, as well as the Unites States overall.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
• He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
• He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
• He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
• He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
• He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
• For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
• For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
• For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
• He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
• He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
• He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
• He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

As a proud citizen of the United States of America, I still get chills every time I read it.

Streaming the USFL chamionship

The USFL playoffs conclude today with the championship game tonight.

AT 7:30 pm, the Philadelphia Stars, the Northern Division champions face the Birmingham Stallions, the Southern Division champions. The game will be on Fox.

There are a few different ways to watch the games if you are a streamer.

Fox

If you have an antenna, you can watch Fox for free. If not, there are streaming services that carry local Fox broadcasts.

• Antenna (free)
• Sling TV (Blue) ($35/month) (18 markets only)
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Fubo TV ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month; includes Disney Bundle, meaning ESPN+)
• DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

If the USFL is something you've been following, or wanting to follow, you can have the spring league championship game in your Streaming Life.

Phones and privacy

I wrote recently about how GNU/Linux focuses on security and allows for greater privacy on systems running their operating systems. Of course, a Linux kernel doesn't always translate into privacy.

For example, iOS and Android phones are not that great when it comes to privacy. Oh, sure, they can prevent third parties from accessing your data, but Apple and Google respectively gather a lot of your data.

Android is actually built on a modified Linux kernel, with the changes making it difficult to change the software. Google license is proprietary, not open source.

And while iOS are mature and stable platforms -- I've used them both for many years -- what they aren't is private. Apple and Google have lots of your data.

My foray into GNU/Linux has resulted in my searching for additional information about the various Linux distributions, and in the process of all that, I've run across some implementations of more privacy based phones, running essentially an Android-like OS.

I considered installing a different OS on one of the Android phones I have, and I considered buying a phone with a privacy-based OS already installed.

Being lazy, I opted for the second method. So, I bought a Murena phone with /e/OS installed.

How's that going?

Not too good.

First, I couldn't get my cheap provider, Tello, to work well. Oh, it would text, and it would make calls, but there was no data away from a WiFi network. Tello rides the T-Mobile network, and where I often am is in an area where T-Mobile has poor service. We get Verizon and AT&T signals very well, and in some places, T-Mobile has good reception, but not where I often am. And that's a problem.

Now, I never noticed an issue with the Google Pixel phone that used the Tello SIM, but the Murena phone didn't work well.

So, I decided to try AT&T. Only, not AT&T. You see, Cricket is owned by AT&T, and runs on the AT&T network, which has good reception here. And since Cricket is a lot cheaper than AT&T, that's a good option. Or so I thought.

Turns out that Cricket supports my phone -- yes, I checked, and Cricket customer service verified -- but it doesn't work. And that makes me think that it's a problem with the phone, not the SIM or service.

Except when I put the Cricket SIM in a Google Pixel, it won't make calls or send texts. It will receive some texts and calls, but it won't make any. And, it won't receive texts from Cricket itself. Which is odd. And pointed to the SIM.

Then I thought, maybe it's actually both. That would be my luck, right?

Well, not so much. After moving the Cricket SIM to an iPhone, I was able to get a text to allow me to set up the account. Moved the SIM to the Pixel and it began working properly. Texts and phone calls can now be made. But, moving the Cricket SIM to the Murena phone running /e/OS didn't work. No change there.

Now, I'm going to try a different carrier for the Murena /e/OS phone. I found a list of carriers that they say will work with that setup, and I'm trying one of those. Cricket was not on that list, by the way. Neither was Tello. So, I ordered another SIM and will try this other "will work" service and see how it goes.

All I wanted to do was to set up a secure phone to test along with my secure computer. And whatever can go wrong seems to go wrong.

I wish my Linux and cell phone projects were going as smoothly as thing have been going in my Streaming Life. But right now, not so much.

More local news for 8 large markets on Roku

Roku Channel recently added eight local news channels to its Live TV lineup.

All eight new channels are NBC-owned stations, and are in eight large markets, mostly in the north and northeast.

NBCUniversal owns 12 local stations, and now eight of those have news feeds on Roku Channel.

• Chicago (WMAQ)
• Fort Worth/Dallas (KXAS)
• Los Angeles (KNBC)
• Miami/Fort Lauderdale (WTVJ)
• New Britain/Hartford/New Haven (WVIT)
• New York City (WNBC)
• Philadelphia (WCAU)
• Washington, D.C. (WRC)

These NBC-owned stations are not available:

• Boston (WBTS)
• San Diego (KNSD)
• San Jose/San Francisco/Oakland (KNTV)
• San Juan (WKAQ)

I noticed that Roku's home market of San Jose was left out. I just found that interesting.

Those eight stations cover a large number of people, since those are some of the largest cities in population in the USA. But, there are 210 TV markets, meaning a number of cities are not covered.

Still, it is a step in the right direction, with more local news available to some areas. At least some people's Streaming Life got a little bit better.