Blog - David Helkowski

Memovich: The Plot Dissolves

 Two days ago Milla Jovovich posted an extensive account of her side of the MemPalace story. It was pretty absurd in my view, to put it mildly. I began writing a new blog article titled: "Memovich: The Plot Thickens".

I started writing something sharp enough to cut the whole thing down. I didn’t post it. I just watched and waited more.

Then, Lu and behold, Milla apologized to me and admitted that yes, it isn't unreasonable to say she doesn't know what she is doing and that the project may not be great.

I'm stunned. She actually flat out stated what is nearly the full truth.

The entire reason I was pushing on this is now resolved. All I wanted from my critique was for it to be admitted that experts matter, and that even with AI you can’t magically produce something better without real experience.

I really did believe that there was some sort of ulterior motive here and that there was some hope to deceive everyone. It seems I was mistaken. Milla legitimately is just a newcomer to AI and for whatever reasons is attempting to make software by vibe coding. Based on what she has now said, I think the story she is giving is real. It's odd to be sure.

So where does that leave us? What is my opinion on it all now?

I still find it absurd and maddening that people are propping up MemPalace as some sort of major accomplishment. But it's nothing to be concerned about now. I am satisfied others have explained why that is delusional, and the warning and details we've provided are sufficient.

If anyone still believes MemPalace is exceptional, that's okay, because that is no longer Milla's fault or the fault of anyone working on it with her. She and those working on it with her do, at least so far, seem to be just doing it because they felt like it. So I think it's unfair at this point to harbor any anger at them, despite that the project remains structurally weak to put it mildly.

So that's it. If everyone was expecting me to continue raging about MemPalace, I'm sorry to disappoint you, because my personal reasons to keep hammering are gone. If you like MemPalace, great, good for you. Have at it. It is an interesting project in that people are attempting to vibe code something of quality into existence with essentially no real software experience or foundations.

There are supposedly people who know what they are doing involved in the project, but I don't think they will succeed in raising the quality of the project enough to make it legitimately good. If they do manage to make it good, then good. It will be a hard path, because they'll have to undo all the vibe coded stuff that is lacking foundational structure and good architecture, which is essentially all of it...

So yeah, I don't really have much else to say here on it. I'll close by saying that Milla's latest responses to me about my critiques were polite and understanding, and that I'm glad to see that she is legitimately understanding that making good software is extremely difficult and takes expertise.

So, if you stumble upon what I've written looking for ammunition to trash the project, I'd encourage you to consider that it's just a bunch of beginners having fun with AI and trying to create something.

If you engage with it, engage honestly. There’s no need to tear it down anymore. Pretending otherwise just clouds what it is.

Memovich Continued

 My last blog article was about MemPalace, the supposedly incredible AI memory project vibe coded in part by Milla Jovovich.

In the last article I focused primarily on what I view as lack of qualifications of who I believe the real author of the project was/is, ...

Milla Jovovich and the Fine Art of Selling Cognitive Swill

 This just in. Milla Jovovich is slapping her name on the ugly bare bottom of a crypto bro trainwreck ai disasterpiece called MemPalace.

Beneath the choking snake oil you'll find... nothing of value.

Ok ok let's get into this practically, as I can only write s...

Regarding Garry Tan, YCombinator, and Corruption

 A few weeks ago I saw an article on Hacker News new with an entire 2 upvotes that piqued my interest. It was a link to this website. It's a detailed article about how Naive ( usenaive ) is j...

Medial Axis Extraction in O(n)

 Around three months ago, I solved a long-standing problem in computational geometry and computer vision:

Extracting the true medial axis from a binary image in linear time per pixel.

No thinning.
No iterative label propagation.
No graph recon...

On AI and the Death of Humanity

Tags: ai

I've been using "AI", as it is currently referred to, for several years now. Mostly I've been using ChatGPT, although at times I've run a variety of different local models, mainly to test what is possible and ascertain for myself whether these things are "dangerous" or not. For the m...

USA: Destination Hell

 I am a US citizen. I don't, though, live in the US. I reside in Japan, and I intend to do so permanently. There are a few major reasons why:

The third poin...

Decoersion

 Something I have believed strongly for many years is that all forms of coercion are unacceptable. Recently I have been thinking about it more, and realizing how pervasive coercion is throughout society.

So, without further ado, I present to you, decoersion ( intentionally spelled w...

Social Media Decline

Social Media: From Fertile Farms to Wastelands

Social media is in rapid decline. What was once a thriving space for innovation, meaningful discussion, and genuine human connection has become a hollow shell of its former self, plagued by corporate greed, algorithmic manipulation, ...

Toddler Investors

Introduction

The investment landscape is moving at an ever-increasing pace, with investors often making funding decisions in mere minutes. The rise of trend-driven investments, such as artificial intelligence, has led to a system that prioritizes popularity over true innovation. ...

Rethinking PCs: A practical approach

Tags: tech

The current trajectory of computer hardware development has increasingly diverged from the practical needs of everyday users. Manufacturers continue to push advancements in speed, power efficiency, and display resolutions—yet for most people, these improvements offer diminishing real-world ben...

Peak Mall Theory

Tags: japan

US mall death, Japan mall life

The decline of shopping malls in the United States is a well-documented phenomenon, while in Japan, malls remain thriving, bustling centers of commerce, entertainment, and community life. This contrast raises an interesting question: why have Japane...

Email is Outdated

 Email seems ubiquitous and irreplaceable. Is it though? It was created for a useful purpose, and worked effectively for a number of years, but I would argue that it is outdated and needs to be replaced by something better as soon as possible.

I explore here why I believe email...

Identity System

 Over my career in software I've repeatedly had to deal with issues of identity. Another way to refer to identity is usernames. The most pervasive identity system in use is email, although it is quickly being supplanted by cell phone number.

Almost every user of the internet ha...

LinkedIn is Buggy

 The main social platform I use is LinkedIn. I've been using it for many years. Over my years of using it I've found it to be very buggy. I began posting the bugs I found as LinkedIn posts. That didn't seem to get much attention or have any meaningful affect, so I created a Github pro...

Hubspot Culture Code

 What follows is a critical critique of the Hubspot Culture Code. This will be an analysis focused on logic. If you are looking for a warm fuzzy perspective on company culture, this isn't it.

A compa...

Pursuing relationships is inherently puerile

Intro

I've seen a disturbing trend online where expressing interest in others for the purpose of being in a relationship with them is thought to be inherently puerile. This view is relayed more simply as "men pursuing women is always sexual and disgusting".

The t...

My time is worth $x per hour

 In the all too recent history I was feeling proud of my day job, and I thought to myself "I can made $x per hour." A bit more thinking I came to the conclusion "I shouldn't do anything that takes me an hour that I could pay someone else to do for less than $x per hour." I believed th...

Should gaming be a gradeschool subject/sport?

 I recently read a post on LinkedIn broadly proclaiming "esports will overtake basketball". My immediate reaction to this was that that is entirely rubbish, and I responded jokingly making fun of the idea. As you might expect, there was a mixed reaction to that.

Some few people...

Job Descriptions

 I am connected to quite a few recruiters and managers on LinkedIn. As a result of this, I often see posts about what candidate's resumes should look like, what information they should contain, how they should approach applying to jobs etc.

Changing the way you apply for roles ...

UMD Data Breach

 A bit over 5 years ago I was involved in the events following a serious data breach at the University of Maryland. I was pulled into the FBI / Secret Service investigation due to my involvement. It may not be clear, but I did not start the data breach. Criminal elements of unknown so...

Blog

 Welcome to my public blog. I haven't blogged publicly in quite a number of years. This is in part due to the overwhelming amount of random information available about me already, and I am unsure about adding to the pile.

I have decided that adding information of higher quality...