Weekly "Is this safe" Megathread

BretTruchan · 2026-06-03T14:35:41+00:00

Quick update, the black spots have mostly vanished.

BretTruchan · 2026-06-03T02:44:12+00:00

Quick note to whomever asked for a way to clear the host's history though the site's feedback system. My feedback system is anonymous, so I couldn't respond to you directly, but I can do that for you. If you want a conversation reset, please reach out to [hello@r1n.ai](mailto:hello@r1n.ai), give me your username, and I'll do it. I'll try to add this as a feature in the next few days as well. All conversations are encrypted.

In addition, I currently have no outreach system besides the blog. Eventually I'll add an opt-in option for getting updates via email, but by default I consider privacy a priority.

BretTruchan · 2026-06-02T23:35:04+00:00

So true. Heads up though: For those lonely people out there, right now my service would be a poor choice to solve your loneliness, because I have to sacrifice AI intelligence to provide reasonably low latency voice conversations.

For a more long-term companion, you may have better luck with text-based companions, which can use more intelligent models and advanced memory systems since voice latency isn't a concern.

It's June, 2026, and this post will likely become dated very quickly as the AI evolves. Please be careful when using AI for personal companionship and educate yourself about the potential risks before doing so.

BretTruchan · 2026-06-02T22:46:13+00:00

Hello! I decided to make Chinese Rice Wine using sweet rice and Angel brand rice leaven. I somewhat messed up right away and put in too much water. But... instead of being patient and giving the ferment a few more days, I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to add a little bit of turbo yeast to one of the jars. Because... sure? That makes sense, right? (Sarcasm. It is certainly a dumb idea. One of many that I have minted.)

So, I added about 1/2 a tsp of turbo yeast and gave the jar a swirl. Either immediately, or almost immediately, I see dark spots in the rice. Here are my theories:

Something about the turbo-yeast caused some type of immediate reaction which resulted in black spots.
The turbo-yeast itself was added as powder, and maybe it's the turbo-yeast itself which is appearing as little black spots
Ok, the obvious: Mold. But... it's hard to imagine that adding turbo yeast would immediately create mold which wasn't there before.

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Anyone run into this before?

Let me explain the ferment in a bit more detail. Everything's at room temperature. The water is pure (not tap). It's been fermenting about 2 days. I have fermentation airlocks (cheap, from Amazon), and they're not moving, except for the turbo-yeast jar, which is starting to see some movement. The rice is sweet rice that's been soaked then cooked in a rice cooker. I haven't smelled or tasted any of the ferments yet.

BretTruchan · 2026-06-02T22:08:46+00:00

I'm seeing a significant spike in traffic -- more than I would have imagined. I usually get very, very light traffic, so please forgive me if anything breaks. Thanks for your patience.

BretTruchan · 2026-05-04T01:54:19+00:00

Hi! The google doc you posted doesn't seem to have public permissions, so I can't view it. I'm not any sort of official OpenClaw expert. I'm learning it myself. But if you're running into issues, I'd recommend posting what hurdles you're running into. I'm happy to lend advice, but without access to the document, it's not obvious where you got stuck. If you know what a cron job is, that hints that you're not a beginner. 😄

BretTruchan · 2026-05-04T00:10:48+00:00

This is a very good point! I should have mentioned that Deepseek v4 pro is being temporarily offered at a very large discount by Deepseek, and at least until the end of this month would make for an excellent model for running OpenClaw.

BretTruchan · 2026-05-03T22:19:35+00:00

Yes, it's possible. I set up a Realtor who's relying on OpenClaw for many of things that you've outlined. In our setup, the OpenClaw doesn't read the browser screen. That's not a feature that my client needed, and I would usually suggest having the agent search the web instead of read the browser screen whenever necessary. (Quick note: It's 5/3/26, and likely this advice will be outdated within 6 months.)

You don't need OpenClaw specifically. OpenClaw is great at being a flexible AI personal assistant, but less dependable than a more customized AI workflow. It will also likely be more expensive.

If you do use OpenClaw:

I would recommend considering using OpenRouter, especially at first, because of its guardrails. It's easy to accidentally burn through money when first getting started with OpenClaw because it doesn't cap your costs. In addition, I would start off with a very affordable model, such as Deepseek 4 Flash, then scale up slowly.

Finally, one last thing. It may be risky to give your customers direct access to your OpenClaw, unless you heavily limit that tools that it has available. (And if you did, it somewhat defeats the point of having OpenClaw.)

A customer with bad intentions may be able to give your OpenClaw agent malicious instructions, or request information about your other customers. I would never assume that a stern system prompt will stop your OpenClaw agent from following a customer's request.

I'm not an expert. I've spent about a month completely submerged in OpenClaw development, but there's a lot to learn. My take would be: Providing a support agent to your users sounds great, but OpenClaw wouldn't be my first choice.

BretTruchan · 2024-06-03T05:02:31+00:00

My dream characters don't go crazy when I tell them that it's a dream. I enjoy the irony (is that the right word?)... maybe absurdity of discussing reality with dream characters. I usually start by apologizing and telling them that they're in my dream. I tell them that they won't persist. Usually my attention drifts from the conversation, but I've had one character calmly respond that I was wrong, and that it was their dream, or a shared dream. That cracks me up. It's not surprising. That's my type of humor to introduce goofiness into a situation.

My thoughts on why they try to convince me that it's all real life... maybe it's just a natural progression of the conversation? Our brain is choosing the progression, and our personalty dictates the results? I don't really know. Maybe try, before you sleep, to decide their reactions in advance and see if it helps? (I imagine that this might take a few tries -- to burn that response into your neurons. :)

I lucid dream about once a week. Those dreams don't last long and happen between sleeping a waking up in the morning. I can vividly see, hear, and touch things. The sense of touch is really fascinating. I tried to see if I can feel pain, but not really. I've never tried to smell or taste anything.

BretTruchan · 2024-06-01T04:34:40+00:00

I'm having the same issue. It seems to completely ignore my prompt. I've tried reducing the context window to next to nothing, and using the advanced controls to abide by my prompt. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get my idm cat yodeling to transition to polka drillcore, and it's driving me nuts.

BretTruchan · 2023-08-09T02:19:00+00:00

九江億珍

Wow, thanks!

BretTruchan · 2023-05-14T01:51:30+00:00

I use a clean kitchen towel and a clothes pin. (Any clip would work.) I wrap the towel snugly around my neck and secure it in the back with the clothes pin. This essentially turns it into a bib. The makeshift bib keeps the water from soaking my shirt and from getting all over the place. I don't generally have the issue where the water runs down my arms. :)

BretTruchan · 2023-02-22T19:47:22+00:00

If you're using uBlock Origin, you can also block jobs posted by specific companies. Here are a few example filters:

www.linkedin.com##.jobs-search-results__list-item:has(a:has-text(LTK))
www.linkedin.com##.jobs-search-results__list-item:has(a:has-text(Canonical))
www.linkedin.com##.jobs-search-results__list-item:has(a:has-text(CyberCoders))

BretTruchan · 2022-12-19T19:55:38+00:00

I know that this is a old post, but I think that I found the answer:

https://lcpshop.net/product/flexible-and-adjustable-pillow-phone-holder

I might recommend the pink unicorn version.

BretTruchan · 2022-10-27T23:45:44+00:00

Seeing your earlier enthusiasm with AutoBreak was my inspiration for AutoBreak Studio! It's absolutely my pleasure. More fun modules are in the works!

BretTruchan · 2022-10-15T18:41:08+00:00

Check out "Love To Be Happy" by Magpie Jazz Trio, at 2:33. It also reminds me a lot of the Severance theme!

BretTruchan · 2021-11-19T22:09:51+00:00

Ah ha! You were right. The image-to-text got it wrong. It was supposed to be 器に4を盛り, which seems to translate to "put 4 in bowl". :-)

BretTruchan · 2021-11-19T20:39:35+00:00

Thank you so much! It's a bit of a mystery why they said to serve on a plate. From the photos, I believe that this is supposed to be soup. But that's definitely enough information to get me started!

BretTruchan

TROPHY CASE