Tag: work

  • Exploring Windows 8.1 Pro: Turbocharging My Old Sandy Bridge i7 with OBS, Stream Deck, and More

    Exploring Windows 8.1 Pro: Turbocharging My Old Sandy Bridge i7 with OBS, Stream Deck, and More

    The last few weeks were about exploring Windows 8.1 Pro. My goal was to see if I could get my good old Sandy Bridge i7 fully engaged with the Sabertooth Z77 motherboard. After some time, I installed all the drivers after much trial and error. Upon initial installation, I noticed that the operating system runs faster than Windows 11.

    Yes, I know, Windows is super old, but it runs so nicely with my old computer. Also, I got to toy around with Lucid GPU to CPU (iGPU), but I wasn’t sure if it had any impact because I’m running an RTX 3060 Ti OC. I accomplished a modest overclock of 4.6 using Liquid Metal thermo solution.

    More recently, I became fascinated with Obsidian, Git, Open Broadcaster, OpenDeck, and Stream Deck. I wanted to see if it was possible to install all of them successfully on Windows 8.1 Pro. The challenge was finding the correct version that allows the installer to do its job. Obsidian was locked at 1.1.16, but worked nicely with most of my plugins. Surprisingly, the release is from 2023. I was impressed that the team supported Windows 8.1 for so long. Meanwhile, GIT installed perfectly without any tweaks.

    Moving to OBS and Stream Deck, I faced many issues. Especially getting them to talk to each other. OBS has a script that allows me to connect via sockets. However, BarRaider’s OBS Tools don’t work on version 27. What’s worse, using the hotkey trick with OBS is not effective because the program has to be in focus.

    I ended up going to Gemini AI and asking it to write me a Python script to communicate with the sockets. The goal was to switch scenes. I created two batch files with commands that called my Python script. It took a while, but I successfully got the OpenDeck to use “Run Command”, engaging OBS.

    C:\Program Files\obs-studio\data\obs-plugins\frontend-tools\scripts\obs_controller.py

    Meanwhile, OBS and Elgato Stream Deck software are locked to an older version and require me to extract the files from the installer and manually copy them. I used a GitHub repository called ElgatoLegacy. Afterwards, I had to copy over a few DLLs, and boom, the program runs with its default programs. However, installing plugins isn’t easy. Since the Elgato community moved to the online marketplace, it no longer supports my old version.

    Eventually, I got both Stream Deck, OpenDeck, and OBS working. I was so thrilled that I could fully engage my old hardware and live stream or record while using my favorite tools. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any thoughts or ideas.

  • 💝 Meaningful Connection 2023-M02

    💝 Meaningful Connection 2023-M02

    Welcome to meaningful connection, where I share February’s resonating ideas, thoughts, and realizations.

    👓 What’s New?

    I’m making progress with journaling and keeping an eye on my life. Meanwhile, I’m working primarily on Acts SharePoint. During work hours, I found myself in drama with a coworker and me. Then I visited the dentist to find out I was doing an excellent job with my teeth minus the grinding.

    Meanwhile, I started stepping back on hosting every weekend. I then managed to hang out at the Marsh with a friend. Then I learned about the green veggies and cheese benefits from kidney stones.

    During February, I had many personal achievements. I was starting with the ability to defer my frustration with a coworker while successfully pausing to pray for guidance so I could seek happiness from within. Further, I tried to understand the pricing for hospitality on care.com and picked out a few candidates. Another coworker surprised me and said he noticed many positive changes due to my new keto lifestyle. It made me feel good because proving through my actions is the best way to a living success. Finally, I could draw a card for grandpa with limited time on his birthday.

    More importantly, my career growth had a few exciting twists and turns. In the jQuery world, I quickly completed promises and synced ajax calls despite others saying it would take too long. While things got dicey at times, I would pause to allow some input from our team and reserve speaking. That allowed me to understand the problem and eventually come to a solution. Finally, I always prepare notes at work for the coming days. That allowed me to improve my knowledge transfer to my boss progressively.

    🔔 What is resonating?

    During February, I chose something that I rated above four and now is in my life. Because of such quality, I decided how to use the healing code. The idea is to adjust the negative or positive energies surrounding me. I heal by using truth statements as affirmations to target my flaws or obstacles that prevent me from limiting beliefs that hold me from my potential. The process takes around 15 mins, and the target is a single issue at a time. I will use different hand positions during the event and read a statement about what appears true. The goal is to create reflection and unearth the hidden gem that could move me to a new level of understanding. Below is an example of a true statement that I like to use:

    Perhaps I Am Lovable Just the Way That I Am

    What is yours?

    🌻 What’s Growing?

    For February, I will choose something that is sprouting and needs to be elaborated upon further. The spout that comes to mind is grounding meditation because it’s a document I improve every Wed and Saturday at the Art Meetup. Now and then, when I perform the meditation, I add or remove lines that open our hearts to drawing out our inspiration. Moreover, I like to reflect on the ropes because of the deep inspiration. For example, “what’s heavy on our soul as we come back” speaks of my long day at work or the pain of not accomplishing my goal of owning property in Manhattan. That thought is essential, and I will not give it less priority. However, I must draw and find a way to use that negative energy and channel it through my breath. Moreso, I always have a choice to reflect and find happiness.

    🥑 Mental Nourishment

    Throughout February, I had many thoughts different from the objective Zettelkasten notes. While writing the mental nourishment section, I realized I could use my thought notes as a placeholder for status, which would help me choose letters from my thought area. The thought that comes to mind is a question.

    What is the difference between trust and being comfortable with somebody? I won’t use the names for anonymity, and here comes the context. In my mind, I feel comfortable when the other person doesn’t expect happiness from me. If I get a happy feeling from the person and they push me to be better in a way that I feel I’m ready for, then I build comfort. Trust is like someone lying to me and using me for other agendas. Comfort me opening up at a reasonable rate, and another person is okay with it. I remember feeling fear because I tend to push people away when I say something wrong. Also, I can apologize and try to understand through reflection.

    What did I learn? Both words are different, and comfort is a higher-level word. Thus, I can only be comfortable once I trust the other person. Therefore relationships require more time to develop.

    🚿 Stream of Consciousness

    Moving near the end, I like to grab a summary of the month or some obstacles I faced. For February, I cooked every weekend. First, I needed to revisit my blessing, so I find balance. My most vital lesson is the feeling of frustration Moving between tasks too quickly, and not finding a chance to go inward. I noticed I got burned a lot because I’m either not paying attention to my body or over-invest in my work. My goal for next month is to focus on internal happiness and not on others around me. Therefore, I must continue healing code and going to bed early.

    More or less, I struggled with keeping myself in balance and giving myself an actual deadline with so many gaps in knowledge to complete the NFT drawings. Next time I’ll overcome it by planning to draw days and how I can finish something simple. Instead, I could do an abstract piece to build my confidence and succeed with my balance.

    💝 Walking Away with the roses

    Well, that’s the month of February. I added a new menu called Give and Coach, so feel free to look around and share what’s on your soul.