jaraxal.dev

Four Signals, One Decision: How Ensemble AI Solves Unstructured Data Matching

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Some of the hardest work in retail analytics happens long before dashboards, forecasts, or machine learning models.

It begins with a much less glamorous challenge: making sure “the same product” is actually the same product across systems.

In a typical supermarket, there were 31,795 items on the shelf on average in 2024¹. Across suppliers, distributors, and point-of-sale systems, the data behind those items is often fragmented, inconsistent, and noisy. GS1 reports that retailers may need 10–15 interactions with suppliers to launch each SKU, and that they face ~15,000 issues with inaccurate product data per year on average.²

The Ultimate Pair Programmer - Why AI Coding Needs Human Experience

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I. Introduction: The AI Honeymoon

If you’re in tech, you’ve felt the magic. As a regular user of {vibecoding} and other AI-assisted tools, I’ve seen it firsthand: boilerplate code vanishes in seconds, complex functions appear faster than I could have typed them, and my overall workflow is genuinely accelerated. It feels like a superpower, a quantum leap in productivity.

But there’s a catch. I find that it accelerates my development… however, I say that with the context of more than 20 years of programming experience. And that experience, I’ve learned, is more critical than ever.

When Three AIs Fixed a README - The Unanimous Verdict Nobody Expected

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Image courtesy of Google Gemini

This is the third article in my AI Code-Off experiments series. You can read the first article and second article for context.

Line 184. That’s where the Quick Start section lived in our project README.

Think about that for a moment. A new developer lands on your project, excited to try it out, and has to scroll through 183 lines of architectural philosophy, memory bank explanations, and universal design principles before learning the single most important thing: how to actually use it.

When Three AIs Tried to Fix 1,717 Lines of Code

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Image courtesy of Google Gemini

This blog is a continuation of my AI Code-Off experiments series. You can read the first article here: I Pitted Gemini, Claude, and GPT in a 4-Stage AI ‘Code-Off.’

1,717 lines. That’s how long my Streamlit UI rule, intended as a guide for LLMs and Agents, had grown.

This wasn’t documentation for humans—it was a rule file for AI coding assistants in Cursor. When you ask an AI to build a Streamlit dashboard, it consults files like this to understand best practices and requirements. But somewhere in those 1,717 lines, the guidance had become contradictory. Plotly or PyDeck for visualizations? The rule said both, with no clear preference. Duplicate sections appeared throughout. Critical production guidance (performance, accessibility, deployment) was completely missing.

I Pitted Gemini, Claude, and GPT in a 4-Stage AI 'Code-Off.'

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Image courtesy of Google Gemini

With over two decades of self-taught programming experience, I’ve seen AI revolutionize my coding over the last ten months. Daily use of LLMs has dramatically sped up projects, from quick prototyping and boilerplate generation to faster debugging. This frees me to focus on architectural decisions and complex problem-solving. However, effective AI use demands a strong grasp of programming fundamentals. LLMs aren’t perfect, and my experience has been crucial in quickly spotting and fixing bugs and logical flaws in AI-generated code.

Update on my blog hosting platform and workflow

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Blog Hosting Platform

I’ve been working on my blog workflow recently. I’ve have used Ghost as my blogging platform for a few years. At $5 per month, it is hard to beat the value of the service. However, my needs are fairly simple when it comes to blogging, so I wanted to get back to the basics. I decided to switch to a static site generator because I’m simply not using any of the advanced features of Ghost.

The Curse of Knowledge

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR

The curse of knowledge happens far more than we realize. Effective communication is not just about conveying information but also about ensuring that your message is well-received and understood. By working to establish a shared understanding, a common context, and a consistent frame of reference, we can avoid confusion and foster a deeper connection with our audience. Let’s strive to communicate effectively and make a positive impact in our interactions with others.

Being More Active - The Sequel

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR

This post is a bit about my background and what I envision for my blog going forward. I need to update my blog more frequently. An 8-year gap between posts is really long!

It’s been a while since my last post

I am updating my blog, one more time. I failed to achieve my objective in my previous blog post, Being More Active, which I wrote in 2016. That blog post was written three years after my last blog post in 2013. I suppose if we were to look at the posting gaps from a breaking personal records perspective, going from a three-year writing gap to an eight-year gap might be quite the record. I really should do better.

Being More Active

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

It would seem that I’ve allowed this blog to become inactive. It’s been three years since my last post. To be honest, I was never much of a blogger so I’m not surprised this site has languished.

Going forward, I plan to write more frequently and expand the content to include more technology-related posts, particularly tutorials. As a Solutions Engineer at Hortonworks, I find plenty of opportunities to generate useful content based on my daily work.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Virginia

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I had an opportunity to take a short trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. I’ve always wanted to go, and this was my first trip. Regarding theme parks, they weren’t very different from Kings Dominion or Hershey Park. My family and I had a good time.

One of the attractions that most interested me was the Animal Ambassadors. I’m not aware of other theme parks offering something similar. They have an up-close tour, during which you pay to get behind-the-scenes exposure to the animals. I was most excited about the Wolf tour, but my timing was horrible, and I missed it. I was able to see some other very cool animals you don’t see every day. Naturally, I went with a camera in hand!

Simba

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This is my cat, Simba. He’s getting old these days, but he’s just as active as my other two, much younger, cats. This is an older photo I took of him in 2010. I did a little post-processing of the shot in Lightroom and cropped the image.

Overall, I’m happy with how this turned out:

Simba

You can find this photo and others on Flickr Jaraxal’s Flickr Photostream - Cats.

Praying Mantis (Mantodea)

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t always get an opportunity to review my photos right away. Distractions will arise, and photo reviews sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Periodically, I find myself going through my Lightroom catalogs and looking for interesting photos. Sometimes, I’ll find an interesting shot that I never got around to reviewing. I found this Praying Mantis on my front porch and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a few photos.

Maryland Zoo in Baltimore

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

My family and I traveled to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore in July 2011. We had a great time, and I’m considering making it one of our annual summer excursions.

I was able to grab a decent set of photos during my visit. I’m particularly fond of this one:

Dexter Cattle (Bos taurus)

You can see the rest of my trip photos here: Jaraxal’s Flickr Photostream - Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

Photo Gallery Options - Revisited

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I posted that I would experiment with using Tumblr as my blogging platform. I used Tumblr over the last few weeks. I think it worked alright, but the workflow didn’t work quite right. Trying to get posts to look the way I wanted was a bit too onerous. When I post a photo, I usually want to provide some minimal background or support description. I liked how Tumblr presented photos using the “Photo” post type. But that format doesn’t support much in the way of descriptive text. That forces me to use the “Text” post type and embed the photo. These post types have different behaviors regarding options and the look and feel of the posts.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I decided to take a day trip to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Church Creek, MD. I had never been there before, but I heard there were photo opportunities to be had. The trip is about 2.5 hours from my house, so 5 hours total travel time. I was only there for about an hour, but it was worth it.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center · 2145 Key Wallace Dr, Church Creek, MD 21622

Seeing Your Photos in Flickr Searches

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Fri, 31 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

While reviewing some of my photos on Flickr, I noticed this message: Your photos are currently not appearing in public searches. More info. I was pretty sure that I had no settings to prevent my photos from appearing in searches, so I clicked the more info link.

The link takes you to a page listing reasons why your photos would not appear in searches. Here are the reasons listed:

New account
Need at least five photos
Need tags and descriptions
Need appropriate safety level set
Make sure the account is not hidden from search
Make sure photos are not hidden from search

None of those reasons applied, as far as I could tell. My account has existed since 2009. I have uploaded over 50 photos, although those uploads have been done in the last week or so. My photos have tags and descriptions. My account is not hidden from search, and none of the photos are hidden from search.

iPhone Photos

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Tue, 28 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I usually take photographs with my Canon 7D. Sometimes, a shot presents itself when the only thing I have available is my iPhone. You can get some outstanding shots with an iPhone when the lighting is good. I’m surprised by how well these photos came out with my iPhone 4S. Here is one of the photos:

European hornet (Vespa crabro)

You can find this photo and others on my Flickr

Flickr Redesign

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Mon, 27 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve had a Flickr account since 2009. I honestly never used it much. However, I really like the new redesign. Since the update, I’ve started putting more photos on Flickr. The thought wouldn’t have crossed my mind before the update.

I still wish they had better sharing abilities. I want to create a username/password for specific sets and share those sets. This is useful for sharing photos with only family and friends. I’m not interested in forcing them to create Flickr accounts or getting everyone’s email address and associating it with permissions on a set.

Photo Gallery Options

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Mon, 27 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Background

I’m an amateur digital photographer. I’ve been doing this since about the summer of 2009. I photograph for personal reasons. Often, my photos are of interesting nature-focused subjects. However, I’m also known to take many photos at family events. I enjoy taking photos of sports, typically soccer or martial arts, that my daughters participate in.

MobileMe

Given this, I was immediately impressed with Apple’s MobileMe galleries and the ease with which I could share my photos with friends and family. I could create a unique username and password for each gallery. My friends and family had a visually pleasing means of browsing the photos and downloading them individually or in bulk.

About me

michael.l.young@gmail.com (Michael Young) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

TO DO: Add content here!