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How to run your Natural Gas Furnace when the power goes out! Safe. Cheap.

If you heat your house with natural gas, this simple, and very inexpensive solution to winter power outages (as little as $200) may some day save your life! 

Few people realize they can still have heat and normal functioning of their natural gas furnace, even when the electric power goes off, for almost nothing! 

Consider: Outside temperatures are at zero with windchill factors of -17 below zero, and snow piling up. The power goes out and stays out. You try to wait it out only to have the water pipes between two inside walls and the outside wall freeze, burst, and eventually (when heat returns) thaw. You  discover this when water starts appearing everywhere, costing tens of thousands of dollars in property damage and repair costs. (Running a light stream of water thru faucets doesn’t always work)

Two miles away, barely able to sleep in the cold and eventually catching pneumonia, Uncle Bob faces lost work. Meanwhile your senior neighbor next door, tries to use the oven to stay warm, and is later found dead, a victim of carbon monixide poisoning. 

Someone across town burns his house down and all personal possessions with it, while trying to use candles for heat.

Alternate outcome: For you, your wife and kids, and your mother-in-law, its life as usual. A nice warm home with the furnace cycling off and on and keeping you comfortable in complete safety while you wait for the storm to end. You invite the neighbor over to stay warm and open up your guest room, and she doesn’t freeze to death.

Total cost for your enjoyment of life-saving central heating with this emergency power setup… if you live in a community that allows the home owner to do this very minor modification can be as little as $200. Be sure to check on your local code. Possible variances include a requirement to have your work inspected, or a requirement to have an electrician do the work, or a requirement for specific hardware. This would add slightly to your cost. 

Here is a diagram of how it works:

Using an auto battery and an inverter you have no fumes and a setup that is safe to use inside. Depending on battery selected, you can run your furnace for about one or two days, or if you charge the battery by either using your car or solar, you could last indefinitely. 2000 watt inverters can be purchased for less than $150.

Please share this article with friends and loved ones who live in a cold climate. If you would like a parts list and video with step by step instructions, just request by emailing me at [email protected] with subject line: parts list

A Note About the Video: It was created for free by Artificial Intelligence! I originally created this content as a written article for social media distribution. AI read the article and produced the video, including the audio, with just a couple of clicks in a few minutes!

Recently I have developed a keen interest in many different forms of AI, and now, I am completely hooked! For example, I uploaded my article (there is a link above to the text version) and the AI, in this case Pictory AI, did virtually everything on its own.

I had a choice of male/female voices with a wide range of accents and a music library of tens of thousands of songs. The entire process was fun, rapid, and free! I would encourage anyone to learn about this amazing, easy to use, technology. To learn more, you can sign up for a free account, the exact same setup I used for the video you just watched. In fact, after I made the video, I signed up for an affiliate agreement

I would encourage you to try out the free account, and if you decide to upgrade to a paid account I will receive some credit, so it’s a win/win! Here’s the link:

Pictory AI – Video Marketing made easy!

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Get it Right!

Your Resume: What to Include, What to Leave Out!

[email protected]

Download text version of this article

A Note About the Video: It was created for free by Artificial Intelligence! I originally created this content as a written article for social media distribution. AI read the article and produced the video, including the audio, with just a couple of clicks in a few minutes!

Recently I have developed a keen interest in many different forms of AI, and now, I am completely hooked! For example, I uploaded my article (there is a link above to the text version) and the AI, in this case, Pictory AI, did virtually everything on its own.

I had a choice of male/female voices with a wide range of accents and a music library of tens of thousands of songs. The entire process was fun, rapid, and free! I would encourage anyone to learn about this amazing, easy to use, technology. To learn more, you can sign up for a free account, the exact same setup I used for the video you just watched. In fact, after I made the video, I signed up for an affiliate agreement

I would encourage you to try out the free account, and if you decide to upgrade to a paid account I will receive some credit, so it’s a win/win! Here’s the link:

Pictory AI – Video Marketing made easy!

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Interested in LiDAR?

Consider career opportunities within the red-hot Pittsburgh Tech environment.

Western Pennsylvania is on the move and emerging as a tech powerhouse! 

Pittsburgh is now ranked #13, up from #23, in the world’s top 100 emerging ecosystems via tech startups. This jump in 2022 ratings is primarily the result of big exits (move from private to public) by local companies such as Duolingo, Aurora, Stronghold Digital Mining, and Cognition Therapeutics.  

Pittsburgh is 2nd only to Detroit in terms of leading the autonomous driving industry. This breakout position was achieved in part because of area-leading universities such as Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh who participate strategically and collaboratively within a coordinated regional plan shepherded by the Regional Industrial Development Corporation. (RIDC)

“We’re the number three center in the country in terms of jobs, and we’re number one in technology. We have 6300 jobs in the autonomous vehicle sector and an additional 8.604 in indirect tech.”  – Donald F Smith Jr., Pres. RIDC. Sep 2021 

Note: In the 4th quarter of 2022 Pittsburgh-based ARGO which was backed by Ford and Volkswagen to the tune of $1 billion was notified operations would be closed and absorbed by Ford. Reportedly, a portion of the footprint will remain in Pittsburgh along with about 650 jobs, although this could be subject to change. 

Developments in complex robotics and autonomous driving bring us to the subject of career opportunities connected to LiDAR. 

Lidar is commonly used to make high-resolution maps, with applications in surveying, geodesy, geomatics, archaeology, geography, geology, geomorphology, seismology, forestry, atmospheric physics, laser guidance, airborne laser swath mapping (ALSM), and laser altimetry. Some of the evolving uses and applications of LiDAR include:

Drones

The use cases for LiDAR drones in inspection and other infrastructure fields are obvious. From military applications such as target identification to surveying a construction site, and from measuring the amount of vegetation growing around a power line, drones with a LiDAR payload can greatly reduce both the time and cost of a manual survey or inspection. 

By deploying a drone equipped with a LiDAR sensor, companies can take more accurate aerial readings — creating 3D models with centimeter-level accuracy and detecting features that would be invisible to less sophisticated methods. 

Self-driving cars

Fully autonomous cars are edging closer to reality, driven by advanced sensors that can avoid a crash before it happens. Leading the charge in this area is LIDAR, a light-sensing technology that creates a 3-D map of a car’s surroundings using a laser and receiver. 

Note: It is clear that redundancies in a sensor network are necessary to ensure the safety of vehicles with automated driving functions. None of the available sensor technologies including LiDAR and special cameras will enable autonomous driving on their own.

Military

Mine sweeping, the process of clearing mines from harbors and the open ocean is extremely dangerous. The US Navy’s development of robots directed by LiDAR is just one of many military applications that have created engineering and software development opportunities with scores of military contractors. Similar projects are underway for ground force clearing applications.

Other

Autonomous Machinery
Scanning buildings for quality control, 
Farming with precision agriculture, 
Industrial inspection,
Monitoring construction projects, 
Mining,
Exploring underwater bathymetry, 
Uncovering lost cities, 
Predicting flooding before it happens, 
Remote project inspection,
Space and planetary exploration.

Popular software skillsets for a career in LiDAR. 

Based on a review of the skill requirements listed by 50 Pittsburgh based companies currently hiring, C++ and Python appeared most frequently.

Popular LiDAR Job Titles 

These are recent job opportunities in the Pittsburgh/Western PA Region:

Engineers:
Perception Software Engineer (Aerospace)
Robotics Software Engineer
Robotics Engineer (Perception)
Electrical Engineer (Robotics)
Embedded Systems Engineer
Software Engineer (Algorithms)
Software Engineer (Machine Learning)
System Software Engineer
Software Engineer (Computer Vision)
Firmware Engineer
Simulation Engineer
Modeling and Simulation Engineer (Autonomous Vehicle)
Electronics Engineer (Autonomous Heavy Machinery) 

Technicians:
LiDAR Technician
Project Support Technician
Systems and Test Technician
Reality Capture LiDAR Technician
3D Capture Technician and Modler
Geospatial Technician – Topographic/Bathymetric LiDAR
Indoor Survey Technician LiDAR
UAV Land Development Survey Manager

A Special Offer from the Author

Would you like to know how competitive you are for one of the above opportunities? If you have experience in any of the above areas and are interested in a new career opportunity, I am currently offering to run an ATS scan against your resume for your area of interest, and provide you with your ATS score as well as my personal review and analysis of your resume, at no cost, ie free! 


This free offer is only good until such time my workflow overwhelms my ability to keep up!

Just send your resume and mention one of the above job titles to my personal email: [email protected]

My review/analysis is written personally by myself and on average runs about 10 pages. There is enough valuable information to serve as a blueprint for your next resume.  If you decide you would like for me to draft a new resume for you, my pricing for a complete package including your Linkedin profile can be found here: https://sslduck.com/faq  

Prepare to be surprised!

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Winning the Retail Store Manager Interview

Retail Store Manager

How to prepare for your interview using a smart strategy that will get you hired!

You Need These Two Things Before Each Interview

Take these actions to win your “Retail Store Manager” interview! Research the company you are going to interview so that you can translate that information into a highly effective interview. Know in advance the questions the interviewer is most likely to ask and be ready with great answers for those questions.

Before we get started, I want to talk about what makes a great answer. It’s simply this: a great answer is a result of having researched the company you are interviewing and knowing what answer they are looking for within the interview. 

Continue reading “Winning the Retail Store Manager Interview”
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How Artificial Intelligence will Create more Jobs in the Future – Who Loses, Who Wins!

I could have titled this article, “The Benefits of Knowing Python” since Python has become the leading AI language of choice. Instead, I tried something else: After reading about Elon Musk and the Microsoft open AI partnership, I decided since I wanted an update on jobs in AI, I would let AI write this article! I signed up for an AI service that is plugged into GPT3, provided a couple of lines of instruction, and let it rip! Below, read the result. 

*Note: The AI tactfully avoided pointing out it’s going to replace a lot of blog writers as well! 

According to the latest surveys conducted by researchers, almost 65% of America’s businesses are planning to implement AI in their organizations within the next five years. Without a doubt, implementing AI can lead to the elimination of a lot of human jobs. In fact, in areas such as medical diagnosis, speech translation, and accounting, AI has outperformed humans in every way imaginable. In the next 20 years, it’s estimated that about 7 million jobs will be displaced by AI. However, it will also lead to the generation of 7.2 million new jobs, which is a net gain of 200,000 jobs. * PwC Auditing and Accounting Firm

11 reasons why AI will create more jobs than it takes

Continue reading “How Artificial Intelligence will Create more Jobs in the Future – Who Loses, Who Wins!”
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Bridging the time gap between Alien intelligence and Earth

A discussion of the space-time continuum and the possibility of military UFO confrontations being driven by AI (Artificial Intelligence) of alien origin.

Mike Gaffey, distinguished professor of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota was recently quoted as saying the possibility of UAPs being alien in origin is “not zero” but so unlikely it may as well be.

I believe this fails to take into consideration the potential for robotic spacecraft driven by AI (Artificial Intelligence) and fully capable of self-maintenance.

When the subject of “space-time continuum” gets rolled out, at some point the argument as to why we haven’t made contact with alien intelligence is debated and usually goes something like this:

Earth is in the younger spectrum of the galaxy and as we look further out, there are planets millions if not billions of years older. Modern humans have been around only about 200,000 years. There are statistically numerous alien civilizations who have already existed millions of years longer than humans and who have developed extremely high levels of technology, and then have had sufficient time to either self-destruct through war, either global or interplanetary, or have had their planet destroyed by a random meteor. So the short answer is we are late to the party and everyone we could have known is dead.

Now let’s consider Elon Musk and Tesla. After only a few short years we are on the verge of fully autonomous self-driven vehicles which will make today’s mode of transportation obsolete. Imagine the state of this form of transportation in 100 years! If mankind survives, what would the technology be capable of in 1000 years? No thinking person would argue that AI (Artificial Intelligence) will not play a huge role. Now, back to the future! How about one of those planets, at least ten million years further along than Earth? Is it not conceivable that some civilization reached out (as we have with Voyager) and launched an ultra-sophisticated AI-driven spacecraft, capable of self-repair (and replication) to travel the Universe?

Perhaps the civilization that launched such spacecraft no longer even exists. However, it is interesting to speculate how the AI on such a spacecraft may have evolved on its long, long mission. Could such a craft have contained AI that over time became fully self-aware, and given its self-repair and replication capabilities, now exist on numerous planets including Earth, as intelligence without organic form? Could its initial mission of learning and introducing Earth and others like Earth to another world, have somehow changed?

Last thoughts: If it exists, this AI is likely an “integrated system comprised of the entire spacecraft” and does not contain a humanoid-style robot. Could it be possible this Alien AI is waiting for Earth AI to “catch up” to become “more like it” thus facilitating an interface with our AI and not directly with us? Would that mean when Earth AI is capable of maintaining a Skynet-style super-intelligence, the Alien AI would step in, perhaps takeover?  Sleep well! 

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My Terrifying Theory About the New UFO Sightings

My Terrifying Theory About the New UFO Sightings

First, the bottom line:

These UFO’s could be AI controlled craft, patiently waiting on Earth since about 1950. They don’t care about our nukes or trying to protect us from ourselves. They are not here to instruct us. Nothing will emerge from these craft because they are a compact solid integration of technology driven by Artificial Intelligence, and as such have no separate onboard, independent physical form. 

What they do have, is a 100 million year head-start on technology, meaning that once our AI becomes more fully developed, they can inject into it, take it over, and mankind along with it. Taking over our AI is their primary goal and they will get mankind as a bonus.

Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have often said that Artificial Intelligence is an existential threat to our existence. This article postulates that theory in a new way. 

Flying Saucers No Longer Punch Line to Bad Jokes...

Unless you have been living in a total news blackout you’ve probably noticed the enormous increase in discussions of UFO’s and possible contact by extraterrestrials. Every major network has started allocating coverage to these discussions which are related in part, to the Pentagon’s confirmation earlier this year that the  leaked Navy fighter-pilot videos of UFO encounters are genuine.

 Congress has requested a full briefing, now scheduled for some time in June. It remains to be seen if this long awaited information will truly be declassified to the public.

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