In the context of LLMs memory can often mean a broadly defined, application-specific ability to detect, retain and re-use bits of useful context along the journey. In contrast to Persistence which is more like a DB with a schema and clear expectations, reliability, etc.
Totally agree. Persistence is a huge part of what we usually mean by state. Nothing stops this from plugging into a real database when needed. But also, nothing stops us from rethinking what a database even is, especially in a world where LLMs have growing context windows and can carry more state internally. Maybe persistence doesn’t always have to mean "write to disk."
good question. I think it'll be self-reinforcing, since the context keeps growing with everything the software has done for you, along with every interaction you’ve ever had with it.
honestly, kind of both. it started as a curiosity. I just wanted to see if it could even work. but after playing with it, I think there’s something deeper.
the most interesting part to me is the idea of apps that self-customize without being told to. they adapt based on how you use them and what you enter, not from settings or configuration. stuff that changes itself in real time, just by being used. we wouldn't build that kind of software today because it's too weird or specific. but with this, it just happens.
still super early and pretty rough, but it feels like a door opened a crack.
Speaking of the AirPods becoming actual hearing aides - how will we reconcile the fact that it is not socially acceptable to wear AirPods when speaking with someone?
Even if you get to explain ‘oh my AirPods are functioning as a hearing aide’ you likely won’t be able to explain that to other people noticing the conversation and thinking to themselves ‘oh that’s douchey, not taking our your AirPods when talking to someone’.
I just really wonder if this will be able to make wearing AirPods while talking to other people socially acceptable because the current presumption is likely that they are not behaving nicely.
I can still remember Marek Dubcek (I'm probably spelling his name wrong) bragging about his performance at Duke3d or Q1, and thinking "fuck him, he's too good-looking to be better than me at a video game", and learning to use mouselook back when you had to handwrite your own config file to use mouselook without holding down Shift.
I took the WAD files for Q1 apart, ripped out all the content for the monster AI and the campaign levels and stuff, so that I could make a zip that fit on 4 1.44 floppies, carry it in my pocket, install it on demand on computers on the Cap labs (I wasn't larcenous/brave enough to compromise the network share like some other people).
(PS: if anyone recognizes me from that much information, get in touch)
Minimal setup for playing q2dm1 is 8 MB compressed. Less if there's only a single player model without skins, but we can allow ourselves to be posh. Made the WinRAR-based installer, cut into floppy-sized volumes, wrote a convenient batch file (with optional dialogs and help screen) to automate copying sets of files to a pack of floppies. Not all computers in school had CD-ROM drives anyway, but they were fast enough, and all had network.
oh heck yeah, I actually had my own web hosting in those days and kept a zip file of a complete quake 1 install so I could run the game on any machine that had net access :) fun times!!
In 1998 Assembly programmers who typically participated in Demo competitions did a series of size coding challenges. The first one was a Snake game (Nibbles), all in a DOS environment. The winning entry was 48 bytes long.
There were also some creative attempts that took less than 48 bytes and got disqualified. One of those encode the entire game in a series of empty folders using the folder names.
Edit: the original Hugo size coding competitions were created by Claus-Dieter Volko (Alias: Adok).
the winning 48-byte entry isn't really snake (nibbles), as the length of the snake grows with every move, rather than with every bit of food consumed. looks more like tron.
I did a POC for this in July - https://www.ohad.com/2025/07/10/voidware/