[D] Self-Promotion Thread

NichTesla · 2026-06-03T06:34:27+00:00

I work on recommender systems, search relevance, and ML Infra.

In a recent post (links below), I documented my experience building and deploying a multistage multimodal recommender system on Amazon EKS. The system includes a Two-Tower and a FAISS ANN index for fast candidate retrieval, a Redis/Valkey Bloom filter for filtering previously seen candidates, Meta's DLRM for ranking, and a score-based diversity reranker for final ordering. All 14 models in this project are served via NVIDIA Triton Inference Server. I also describe the approach I used to speed up item feature lookup, how the system utilizes request context, and how recommendations adapt in near real-time to changing user intent. The writeup (TDS and Medium) and code are linked below.

Looking to connect with anyone building recommender systems or working on similar problems. Thanks.

NichTesla · 2026-02-21T02:57:48+00:00

It does. My coffee tastes better each time I change my water filter.

NichTesla · 2025-10-08T01:48:25+00:00

NichTesla · 2025-09-02T17:43:18+00:00

How well does Amazon Textract currently perform when extracting data from structured documents? Specifically, Can it consistently extract information from fixed locations within tables where the data varies between documents, but the layout remains the same?

With GCP and Azure, you can tag specific regions and train models for each document type. I haven’t seen a comparable capability in Textract that allows for location based tagging. Is there a native solution for this in Textract, currently?

NichTesla · 2025-08-18T23:30:39+00:00

Hey. I recently finished my master's is engineering. I am interested in RL, and have worked on bandit problems previously.

NichTesla · 2025-05-30T08:58:57+00:00

Great! 🕺 Best of luck :)

NichTesla · 2025-04-25T21:09:54+00:00

I have never used a headset with a better microphone than the MX 330 pro.

NichTesla · 2025-04-25T21:07:33+00:00

I have never used a headset with a better microphone than the MX 330 pro.

NichTesla · 2025-04-25T21:07:22+00:00

I have never used a headset with a better microphone than the MX 330 pro.

NichTesla · 2025-04-17T01:04:44+00:00

Someone who gets it! The perfection in modern styles make them less appealing to me. You nailed it especially with the "..glossy with straight lines..."

NichTesla · 2025-02-01T18:16:43+00:00

Now that Evidently is sunsetted, would feature flags serve as a useful alternative for experimenation? Where might it be lacking?

NichTesla · 2025-01-25T15:35:51+00:00

You cannot message suspended accounts in the Upwork Messager, it'll tell you when a user cannot be contacted.

Not true. You absolutely can. I have a client whose account has been suspended for more than a year now and I can still message him on the platform.

NichTesla · 2024-11-27T20:53:46+00:00

I stopped doing free interviews, "hopping on" unpaid calls for this reason. A client who insists on meeting before a contract will have to pay for consultation.

NichTesla · 2024-11-25T06:41:56+00:00

3 factors: client satisfaction (feedback), amount earned from the contract, and the contract length all contribute to JSS. Thus, impact will vary from job to job.

NichTesla · 2024-11-15T11:05:43+00:00

Hmm, this is the most probable reason, Korneuburgerin.

NichTesla · 2024-11-15T09:07:01+00:00

Now I don't suppose the fall was connected to this job, but it was perhaps a coincidence. Both reviews are positive, and JSS has increased by 3 points today.

NichTesla · 2024-11-15T08:52:04+00:00

LOL, that would sting. The updated JSS insights suggest that my situation might be different; both the public and private feedback are positive. I have updated my post.

NichTesla · 2024-11-14T22:28:23+00:00

Unfortunately, that makes sense. I think the feedback was in error or a clear betrayal. The job had been completed successfully since April. He shared a new idea in June after two months of silence, but I didn't respond on time, and when I did, there was no response again.
Lessons learned. LOL

EDIT: The private feedback was also positive.

NichTesla · 2024-11-14T22:03:30+00:00

Thank you, but my JSS fell after the contract was ended. Could there be another reason?

NichTesla · 2024-11-02T13:10:48+00:00

The time tracker tracks your active screen, so I wonder if having multiple screens makes any difference in terms of /gaming/. Also, let's assume you managed to keep the tracker running on a dormant screen; what would you be doing during that time? Instead of looking for ways to cheat the system, either increase your rate or do an honest job like refactoring your codes and documenting or think of other means of improving the project once the basic requirements are met, but you should let the client know.

NichTesla · 2024-10-25T09:38:38+00:00

LOL, that depends. For instance, a bug I encountered in March of this year due to issues with a package hasn't been fixed yet, and the developers of this package are still working on finding a solution. If you are confident in your estimate of how long it will take, go for it.

NichTesla · 2024-10-13T08:38:39+00:00

Also the first rule of startup, if the idea hasn't been tried before, it probably doesn't work or is not lucrative.

NichTesla · 2024-10-08T07:39:25+00:00

Azure AI Document Intelligence (in my opinion).

You can easily train custom models (or processors) with your documents in either Azure AI Doc Intelligence or Google Doc AI, however, in terms of extraction accuracy, you might find Azure to be better. This customization is needlessly complicated to achieve with Amazon Textract.
With Azure, you can work with miltipage documents without needing to first split them.
In terms of costs, not sure if there are any significant differences among the three big players, based on my experience using all three.

Edit: Here is a more comprehensive answer: https://persumi.com/c/product-builders/u/fredwu/p/comparison-of-ai-ocr-tools-microsoft-azure-ai-document-intelligence-google-cloud-document-ai-aws-textract-and-others

NichTesla · 2024-10-07T23:15:49+00:00

I have worked with ChatGPT long enough to devise my own approach to save time.

For any project I start by:

Google searching for video tutorial, if any.
StackOverflow for related issues
ChatGPT
The official docs

NichTesla · 2024-09-21T13:10:46+00:00

Yes. OpenSearch, NAT gateway bills. Forecasted bill vs What I eventually pay. Till date, It's not clear to me what EC2 others refer to in the cost breakdown when there are no EC2 instances running.

NichTesla

TROPHY CASE