DEV Community: HIPHOP and CODE

Day 1423 : Street Clothes

HIPHOP and CODE — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 22:14:54 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : Started the day determined to get this new Proof of Concept done. Had a roadblock yesterday that I couldn't do anything about until it worked itself out. The application is using AI to respond to a call and then do some things based on what the user says. Cool. No problem. Got it working mostly yesterday. Today was mostly trying to wrangle the responses from the AI so that it would be consistent. haha I literally told the model to not do something and it proceeded to do that thing! haha It's still experimental so I'm hoping it'll get better over time. I got it working consistently enough where I recorded a quick demo so I can send it to some folks to get their feedback. After getting all that done, the day was basically over. It flew by!
Personal : Got my laundry done. Got all the Bandcamp projects selected and put together the social media posts. Also did some brainstorming for a couple of designs for slipmats that I want to get done before I head out for my work trip.

My focus for tonight will be to get the radio show ready for tomorrow. Then I want to iron and pack my clothes in the suitcase. Got to have enough street clothes and work clothes to last awhile till I can get to a laundry mat or if one of the hotels have something. Also need to make sure I got all the tech I'll need on the road in my backpack. Definitely need to get these custom slipmat artwork done so I can print them tomorrow before I head to the station to do the radio show. Speaking of radio show, tomorrow, Saturday, check out https://kNOwBETTERHIPHOP.com I'll be travelling on Sunday so no study sessions at https://untilit.works. Also, since I'll be out, no updates on this blog for the next few weeks, but check out https://Dwane.in for pics and vids from the road.

Have a great night, weekend and next few weeks!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1422 : Dirty Laundry

HIPHOP and CODE — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 23:48:17 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : Today was my first full work day back from my trip to do the workshop. It went pretty well. Everyone was able to get the application up and running and even got to play around and change some stuff. I've learned some things to take to the future workshops coming up. On the train ride back yesterday, I had an idea to send a prototype I've been working on for the job to integrate one of our products. I went back and forth with AI to make sure what I was thinking was currently possible. So between meetings, I worked on the application. I'm super close to getting it working. I ran into an obstacle that was beyond my control and had to wait for it to sort itself out. I've been also exporting and uploading video footage I took all day! Then it started to rain heavy and my internet went out. Got to love Florida weather. So I had to use my phone's hotspot which slowed things down. Hopefully, I'll be able to knock out this application and possibly one more so I can use it in my workshops.
Personal : So yeah, good to be back, even if it's for a short amount of time. I took a few pics and videos and posted them on my travel site at https://Dwane.in/CHFmiami Met a lot of cool folks. I'm still recovering. I wish the trains had more travel times.

There's a bunch of stuff I want to get done and not enough time. haha I've been washing dirty laundry all day. Still need to pack for like the next 3 weeks on the road. I want to get a bunch of tracks ready for the radio show while I'm out. I'll probably bring my laptop with me so I can work on tracks. I'm going to go to an event while in Atlanta so I want to create some custom slipmats to give some folks. I'll probably work on the design tonight so I can print them tomorrow. Luckily, it's pretty quick. I also need to prep some of my equipment so they don't leak while I'm out. But I'll do that tomorrow. Tonight, I want to get some design work in, pick projects on Bandcamp and buy them tomorrow since it's Bandcamp Friday. I'll get the social media posts ready from tonight though. Going to eat dinner and get to work.

Have a great night!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1421 : The Train

HIPHOP and CODE — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 23:30:22 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : A couple of transactions still pending in the application that my company uses to submit expense reports. The thing is that the reports are due at the end of the month, today! I sent an email to support and they said to just submit the reports without the pending transactions and submit them later. So that's what I did. For the rest of the day, I prepped for my upcoming workshops which included sending the social media posts. That took forever. I spent a bunch of time seeing if the venues have profiles on the different platforms. Then it was trying to get all the text to fit in one post. Took a lot longer than I would have liked. haha Got it done though.
Personal : Got the social media posts for the Bandcamp projects I picked up done. Went through some tracks for the radio show. Washed all the clothes that I took to NY so I can be ready for the first stop of this workshop tour to Miami coming up next week.

My focus tonight is to get as much done for tomorrow's radio show as well as future episodes especially since I'll be on the road for a few weeks. So yeah, radio show tomorrow at https://kNOwBETTERHIPHOPcom and there won't be a study session on Sunday at https://untilit.works because I'll be on the train headed to Miami! No blog posts for the next few days while I'm out, but you can follow along with my trip at https://dwane.in/CHFmiami.

Have a great night, weekend and week!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1420 : Hopes and Dreams

HIPHOP and CODE — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 23:50:35 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : First day back from New York. It's Thursday so I had a few meetings. I added an export feature to the workshop I did in New York because at the end, they said they wanted the attendees to be able to export the application to their personal GitHub accounts to submit it to a site to get credit. It's funny because the organizers for the upcoming set of workshops wanted their attendees to be able to do the same thing. It was never a thing that I thought people would want to do. Since I got the export feature working for the upcoming workshops, I just spent some time after my meetings implementing it into the workshop I just held. Tested it to make sure it works and sent an email to the organizers letting them know that they can tell the attendees. Going forward, I'm just going to make exporting the application a standard feature. Rest of the day, I spent getting my Expense report for all the transactions this month. I can't submit it yet because there are some pending transactions. Hoping they go through soon because the end of the month is tomorrow! I also booked the final hotel for my workshop series now that the venue has been confirmed.
Personal : I was able to get the prototypes I made for the upcoming project to one of the artist's wife. He was out of town for a show. I sent pictures and he said things look really good. The machine that I just backed on Kickstarter allows for full color 3D prints. It supposed to come out in December, so I figured that's enough time to be able to learn how to do some simple 3D modeling. Been watching some tutorials for different 3D modeling applications to see what could help me make what I'm looking to create. Hopes and dreams.

I'm tired! haha I think the workshop in NY went really well. Folks said they enjoyed themselves and posted good feedback on LinkedIn. A couple of people did the whole workshop on their phones. haha People took what I showed them and extended it to use different languages. Now, I'm switching my focus on the upcoming workshop series. I'll be on the road so I need to get a bunch of tracks set up. Going to work on that tonight. I already picked the Bandcamp projects I'll be buying this week. Going to get the social media posts ready for tomorrow. Going to eat dinner and get to work.

Have a great night!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1419 : Saturday

HIPHOP and CODE — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 22:16:31 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : Almost done with the steps for the workshop that I will be taking on the road in a few weeks. I already had the base from the last time I gave the workshop, but I added a lot more features that have come out since then. I started the day taking embarrassingly long to get this promotional video I made posted to my social media accounts. It took a while to track down if the people involved in the upcoming workshop have accounts on the different platforms. Then I saw that some sites have built in Closed Captions for videos so I didn't need to add my own, so I just uploaded the version that didn't have captions. Got the venue for one of the workshop stops that was confirmed. I then did some research for hotels nearby and booked one within walking distance. Yeah, just wrapping things up before the weekend and my workshops coming up.
Personal : Last night, I again went through a bunch of tracks for the radio show and started putting together playlists. I'm going to need a few for the time that I'll be on the road just incase I don't have any time. I created a jig for one of the items that I'll be using my laser engraver on. I also got a bunch of the promo items that I'll be giving away at workshops made.

Got a bunch of stuff still left to do. Tried to print something on my UV printer but apparently it's too hot in my shed to operate. Going to try again when it gets cooler in the evening. Got a few things I want to laser engrave. I need to tweak some images so the laser engraved images looks crisp. There's a part that is a weight for one of the items that has a bunch of BBs that I need to glue together into one mass. I want to get everything together so that I can get these prototypes to one of the artists I'm working with on this project. Since I had to print the jig a couple of times (I could not get this thing to sit right! haha) one of my printers has about 3 hours left on the last set of promo materials. It also ran out of filament and had to be reloaded. The other printers have like 45 minutes left. While I wait, I'm going to get the laser engraving going, get the weight glued together and put together the radio show playlist and social media posts for tomorrow. Oh, I also need to pack for my work trip next week. Going to see what I can get done before dinner and get back at it afterwards. I'll also probably get up early on Saturday morning to complete what I couldn't get done tonight before heading to the station. Speaking of, the radio show happens tomorrow at https://kNOwBETTERHIPHOP.com. There won't be a study session over at https://untilit.works on Sunday because I will be travelling! I will probably not post another blog post till I get back. You check out pics and videos I take on my trip here: https://Dwane.in/GDGNY

Have a great night and weekend!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1418 : I Swear

HIPHOP and CODE — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 22:01:44 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : A whole lot of meetings like any normal Tuesday. 2 meetings even overlapped each other. haha Got to demo the application for the workshops I've got coming up in a team meeting. It worked. I decided to record a promo video for my workshop on Tuesday. I opened up the old project I was working on. My internet has been weird all day so I think that made the Codespace not open up properly or something. Finally got it running and did a quick update to change a setting so that it would sound better. I don't know what I did, but I got a weird glitch. It was lunch time so I just shut everything down and took a break. Came back with a full stomach and a clear mind. I immediately saw what I did. Like I said, it was an old version of the workshop and the code I updated the application with old code that had the wrong variable. Fixed that, got it working, recorded the promo video, edited it and sent it to my manager and the person that is booking the workshops to get their feedback. They liked it. I'm going to post it to my social media accounts tomorrow morning. Finished the day working on my upcoming workshop series.
Personal : Last night, I went through a bunch of tracks for upcoming radio shows. I also purchased the Bandcamp projects for this week and started putting together the social media posts. Studied Japanese a little bit and went to sleep.

Ran some prints on different sublimation papers that I ordered using different printer settings. It's kind of getting there. Luckily, the custom slipmat designs come out pretty clean so I printed and made those. I'm going to make and 3D print a jig for one of the items so that I can consistently place it so that when I do the laser engraving, it's always in the same place. I'm going to create it in time that I can print it after these other promo items finish printing. Got like an hour and 15 minutes left. I want to do all the laser engraving stuff tomorrow. I want to get a set of prototypes that I can get to one of the artists I'm working with to get their feedback and approval. That reminds me, I need to glue this stuff together for the weight in one of the items. Also, a new machine I want to get for the shop just went on Kickstarter. When I get it, it will add a whole new capability to what I can make. This could also take one of the items I make now to a whole new level! I swear this is the last machine I'm buying! haha My company needs to start making money with the stuff I have now. The real issue is that I take to long trying to perfect what I'm making. I have a list of items that I can make for prospective clients/business that I want to reach out to. Just need to get through this current project and get it out the door and for sale so I can focus on other projects that will hopefully generate recurring income. If this current project goes well, I should be able to pay off all the equipment I have so that I start in the positive. We'll see! Going to work on this jig, go through tracks, finish up the social media posts and study Japanese, right after dinner. haha.

Have a great night!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1417 : Well Organized

HIPHOP and CODE — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 22:34:28 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : Again, I had a couple of back to back meetings. Then there was an all employee meeting to discuss stuff happening with the company. I also booked hotels for 3 out of the 5 cities for the upcoming workshops. I went through a bunch of research on how close they are to the venue. Do they have complimentary breakfast? haha Can I walk to the venue? For example, New York, with all the highways and tunnels I had to make sure. I even pulled up the 3D / street mode on Google Maps to make sure there were cross walks from the hotel to the venue. Just because the distance was the smallest, it doesn't mean you can walk there. haha. Also did some work on my next workshop. Pretty good day.
Personal : Last night, I picked the projects I'll be picking up on Bandcamp this week. I also went through a bunch of tracks for the upcoming radio shows. The promotional items I printed came out really good. I think I may have enough for right now. Going to see how this workshop next week goes to see if I need to make any more. The updated model I made changes to for this project came out really good. I think I've got it!

Got like 15 minutes left on this last set of promotional item prints. I wanted to have a couple of new colors. The other types of sublimation papers that I ordered came in. Going to see if I get any better results when I'm creating the custom slipmats. Going to try that tomorrow. I printed the box that the items will come in with a higher height. The good news is that all the items fit now with no problem and looks well organized. Stuff is coming together. I think I'll be able to show one of the artists The prototypes in person to get their sign off. Just got a bunch of laser printing, sublimation and gluing some stuff together. Tonight, I'm going to buy the Bandcamp projects and get the social media posts together and get more tracks ready for the radio show. Going to get these prints off the plates. Then it's dinner time and get to work.

Have a great night!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1416 : It Won't Be Long

HIPHOP and CODE — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:21:20 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : Whew... my brain is tired! haha Had a couple of back to back meetings. One meeting was talking about the stuff that was added to a product and what's coming in the future. Some pretty cool stuff. Looking forward to building some demos and maybe workshops to incorporate them. Spent the rest of the day I was booking a bunch of travel for my upcoming events. There's a bunch of travel by train so I had to make sure I had the right stations. That was a lot of brain power used today. haha.
Personal : Last night I went through a bunch of tracks for the radio show. The prints with the latest spacing came out really good. Pretty much all I did last night.

Made some modifications to a model for this project I've been working on. Going to print out a prototype once these prints finish in like 30 minutes. I'm going to go through more tracks for the radio show so I have enough while I'm out on the road. It won't be long before I head out and I want to get as much as I can done now on this other project I've been working on. Looking to have prototypes ready to send to the folks I'm working with. Got to remember to get a Japanese lesson in also. I'm out. Going to get to work and have some dinner.

Have a great night!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1415 : Overdue

HIPHOP and CODE — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:16:19 +0000

liner notes:

Saturday : Before heading to the station for the radio show, I spent some time in my workshop. I made a quick modification to a 3D model and did a print. It worked! After that, I headed to the studio and did the show. Great time as usual. The recording of this week's show is at https://kNOwBETTERHIPHOP.com

Sunday : Pretty productive day. I did a sublimation print on a book bag that I want to take on my trip. The results were good. There was some residue from previous prints, but it looked cool. Now I know what to do next time. I'm noticing some like blurry lines on some parts of the prints. I think the ink isn't drying in time or something. I ordered some other paper weights to see if that will fix things. I already did a bunch of research and changed settings on the printer and got it a lot better than it was. Going to play around with it some more.
Professional : I added a new feature to an application that I'm working on for some upcoming workshops. I had my manager test it out during our 1 on 1 meeting and they really liked it. I'm going to clean it up and update the workshop steps and get it ready. Responded to some community questions. I also did some research mapping out my travel for this upcoming run of workshops and got it ready to put into this AI that has access to different company docs to help me build out an itinerary. I wanted to see what it could come up with. I copy and pasted my research into it and it broke! haha. Going to try it again tomorrow.
Personal : So, I've been working on different space sizes for this model I've been printing all last week. The issue is that depending on the printer and filament, the prints can come out different even if all the settings are the exact same with the exact same file. One size for the space between the parts are pretty loose and they fall out and another size it's too close and the parts kind of fuse together and are really stiff. I changed the size to be in the center of the 2 space values I printed previously and it just finished. I think I got it right! Out of the 100 items, 99 came out good. Like 4 were kind of stuck, but I just needed to press it a little and it worked. 1 isn't really usable because the filament may have been out too long and it started to mess up towards the top layer. It's a new filament manufacturer that I haven't used before. I'll need to dry it and it should print fine next time.

Like I mentioned before, some of the prints were either too loose or too tight. Luckily, I can interchange parts so the it works pretty well. Been spending a little time mix and matching parts after work. haha If I have any parts left over, I should be able to print the missing pieces at the correct sizing so it will fit together. That way, I don't have any waste. Going to go through tracks for the radio show because I need to have a stockpile since I won't be able to do it while traveling, but still doing the show. After dinner, I'll get started on that and I want to make some more modifications to another model so I can print it tomorrow. There's a project that I want to get done so I can get a prototype to the folks I'm working with on this project. I'm way overdue! haha.

Have a great night!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1414 : No More

HIPHOP and CODE — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 21:39:07 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : Most of my day was responding to community questions and emails. The emails I had to take some time because I wanted to make sure I said everything I needed to say. They were concerning my upcoming workshops and trying to get some hardware that could really take the workshops to another level and possibly some bigger things in the future.
Personal : Last night, I got all the social media posts of the Bandcamp projects I picked up this week done. I also modified the model for the item I've been printing this week. I increased the spacing between parts a little from .3mm to .4mm Not sure why it was originally .3mm since I normally keep things at .4mm I may have resized the model at some point and the dimensions changed. I'm trying to get it to the point that after the items are done printing, they are good to go once I pop them off the build plates. Right now, there are a few that I need to do some post processing on and I want to eliminate that. I also listened to some tracks for the radio show. Did a quick Japanese lesson. Went to sleep.

Got a couple of hours left on these new larger spaced items to be completed. Really hoping that they are good to go after coming off the plates and no more post processing. If not, I'll increase the spacing to .45mm and try again this weekend. Going to put together the tracks for the radio show and the social media posts. I got a new camera to be able to record my workshops so I'll play around with that. Can't forget to do a Japanese lesson. Saturdays are for the radio show at https://kNOwBETTERHIPHOP.com and Sundays are the study sessions at https://untilit.works.

Have a great night and weekend!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1413 : The Road

HIPHOP and CODE — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 22:41:30 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : Thursdays are for meetings and today was no different. In addition to normal ones, I had a meeting with some folks about upcoming workshops I'll be holding. I got all the final dates and we spoke about some other details. Got some really good emails that I'll respond to tomorrow. Basically spent the day between meetings working on the other workshop I have coming up for those same dates that the meeting was about.
Personal : Last night, I got some 3D prints worked out. I went through some tracks for the radio show. Studied some Japanese. Went to sleep.

Got a little longer for these prints to finish. Going to pickup some projects on Bandcamp and get the social media posts together to post tomorrow. I also need to build a catalog of tracks for the radio show since I'll be on the road for a while. Going to eat dinner and get to work.

Have a great night!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Day 1412 : Alive

HIPHOP and CODE — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:38:47 +0000

liner notes:

Professional : Spent the first part of my day troubleshooting why I was getting this random Bad Request error in this application I was building. After a bunch of research and going back and forth with AI, I was able to get it working. Turns out that the call was ending before I could send a response. The blog post I was reading was kind of vague. I verified it by logging the status of the call in different parts of the lifecycle. I had to loop some audio into the call to keep it alive. I had AI generate some hold music. Once I got all that working, I updated the workshop steps and code. I got it all packaged up and uploaded to the GitHub repo so it could be built out. Had an all employee meeting so I didn't get to test it. After the meeting, I responded to a community question. Had a really good meeting that I've been trying to set up. Hopefully I'll be able to have something that I can show on these upcoming workshops. It was a good productive day. Ended the day reaching out to someone with a deployed demo using a library they are working on. Hopefully they think it's cool and maybe we can work together in the future.
Personal : Did some finishing work on the promo materials I'll be giving away at some events that I printed. Went through some tracks for the radio show. I hurt my wrist trying to get a bug that got into my van. Called it a night after that. haha.

It's been a struggle to get stuff done because my wrist was hurting me. Of course 2 of my printers ran out of filament while they were printing and replacing the spools with a hurt wrist took awhile. Got a little while longer before they are done. Going to go through tracks for the radio show. How is it already Wednesday?!? Going to go through some tracks for the radio show. I also got some sublimation blanks that I want to print on for my upcoming trips. Going to eat dinner and get to work.

Have a great night!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com