How Copilot Can Save Us Energy
Let’s face it! Our homes are getting smarter, but our energy bills are getting dumber. If you’ve ever asked Alexa to dim the lights while binge watching your favorite show or told Google Home to crank up the AC during a heatwave, congratulations, you’ve officially joined the AI-powered energy club. But before you start blaming your smart speaker for your rising electricity costs, let’s talk about how Copilot can actually help you save energy (and maybe even your sanity).😁 First, the good news. Devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home are not just glorified trivia machines, they’re energy-saving ninjas when used correctly. According to Tom’s Guide and SmartHomeMuse, setting up routines like "Alexa, I’m leaving, can you automatically turn off lights, lower thermostats, and shut down unnecessary devices?" Google Home can do the same, adjusting smart thermostats based on occupancy and weather forecasts. It’s like having a personal energy butler who never complains. And then there’s the Alexa Energy Dashboard. A nifty tool that tracks the power usage of connected devices. It’s like Fitbit for your fridge, letting you see which gadgets are guzzling electricity and which ones are behaving. Pair that with smart plugs and solar panel integration, and you’ve got a recipe for serious savings. Even Alexa’s 'Hunches' feature can detect when you’re away and shut things down automatically. Smart, right? 👍 But here’s the plot twist: these devices can also be energy vampires. According to Harvard Magazine and SFGATE, the 'always-on' nature of smart assistants means they’re constantly listening, syncing, and updating. Even when you’re not talking to them. That persistent power draw adds up, especially in homes with multiple devices. The Amazon Echo, for example, has no battery and must be plugged in 24/7. It’s like having a roommate who never sleeps and always leaves the lights on. Internal reports like the Amazon 2020 Sustainability Report and Alexa usage studies show that frequent users often have entire ecosystems of smart devices lights, thermostats, speakers, and more, all connected and consuming energy. Without proper optimization, your smart home could become a not-so-smart drain on your wallet. So, what’s the solution? Enter Copilot. By leveraging AI to automate energy-saving routines, monitor device usage, and suggest optimizations, Copilot can help you strike the perfect balance between convenience and conservation. Think of it as your energy-saving sidekick. Always watching, always learning, and never judging you for asking Alexa to play 'Eye of the Tiger' at 2 a.m. In conclusion, smart assistants are a double-edged sword. They can save you energy if used wisely or sneakily inflate your bills if left unchecked. With Copilot in your corner, you can harness the power of AI to make your home smarter, greener, and a little less expensive. And hey, if it also helps you win trivia night, that’s just a bonus. 😉
CI/CD for Power Platform using GitHub Actions
Let’s discuss using GitHub actions to provide continuous integration and deployment capabilities for Power Platform solutions. This article will expand on why and several considerations to keep in mind but you can find the how in this tutorial which this post will reference.Part 2 - Deep dive into setting up Social Media Analytics solution
Imagine you are a pharmaceutical company wanting to gather public opinions and trends around their new medicine/vaccines/products. Social Media Analytics (SMA) solution helps aggregate relevant posts and news from social media outlets. SMA then run sentiment analysis, analytics, and translations from the data. It then packages the enriched results into a beautiful executive dashboard in PowerBI enable healthcare companies to make insightful decisions.Creating a Notification Service and Components in Blazor with Bootstrap
Now that I’ve finally had opportunity to work on a notification service for the front-end, I wanted to share with everyone. This service was originally something that I piloted in my team’s project, Fast Pass, that was created to demonstrate how Text Analytics for Health can be used to extract medical information from physical patient documents to persist to an EMR. However, I recently improved it to a level of satisfaction worthy of sharing in an older project, FhirBlaze, which we recently updated with OpenAI to generate FHIR queries.
