Sometimes I want to store things, but find that the "immediate access to everything" storage paradigm works against my interests.
Maybe I read a great paragraph and immediately want to see it again at some point, but don't want to encounter it on every subsequent opening of my notes app. Or maybe I have an idea that I'd like to revisit after it simmers a little. Or I want to remember a conversation or an experience, but might prefer to wait awhile before re-encountering it.
These situations call for storage with a little more stochastic whimsy. The Lost and Safe database (homage to The Books) was built to explore this idea.
Things you store here are lost: the database does not permit fetching of any specific entry. They are also safe: whatever you store will come back to you eventually with enough calls to the database.
LSDB v1 is a simple CLI app:
lsdb store '<text>'serializes text input to local storage.
$ lsdb store 'A recipe idea, or a phone number, or whatever else'
Successfully stored: A recipe idea, or a phone number, or whatever else
lsdb recallreturns something you've stored in the past. It prioritizes reverse-novelty (preferring to return things you've stored less recently), and items that have been returned less often.
$ lsdb recall
A recipe idea, or a phone number, or whatever else
Last seen on: Sun Nov 10 11:59:21 2024 EST
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LSDB v2 (in progress!) will encrypt input to provide an extra measure of lostness, and rate-limit retrievals. It may eventually evolve to a web app.
Create a build directory within the project. From the build directory, run cmake --build .
From your build directory, run cmake --install .
Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya for the design insights, @PaulBatchelor for the C++ support, and the terrific @recursecenter community.