Pandemic Update – most of the old stuff below applies – doing most of my volunteer work (biz mentoring – free) with SCORE – and by email and phone, etc.
My (long) post on COVID Policy and Events in Florida – and the USA.

Not taking paid jobs any longer unless you have something really interesting! That is, I don’t work for money at this point but idealism or engineering or something new can catch my attention!

Getting back, Winter 2021, to live and in-person volunteer work. In Florida so I will be doing Meals on Wheels – shoutout to the local Sarasota MOW which is doing things right!

From a long term perspective it was sad to watch how poorly we (USA) have done when the chips are down. As many have noted, it seemed to bring out the worst in people instead of the best (with exceptions, of course)

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Starting in 2018, Craigsfire.com will be the home of my “Common Sense Internet, Business, Technology or Personal Consulting”  services. Currently serving Clients in many fields including Aerial Robotics (drones), Invention and Patents, Renewable Energy and more. As of 2021 I am mostly limited to doing Volunteer Work in these various pursuits.
Craig Issod
Southampton, MA and Sarasota, FL
Email: cissod at gmail

Craig owned and operated the popular Droneflyers.com site (2013-2018) and still provides consulting to the Aerial Robotics (civilian drone) sector. Here is a link to some of the Vimeo Videos I shot with earlier drone models – Here are some aerial photos from over the years

Droneflyers.com will be administered by the same group that current runs Dronelife and the IFly Drone ETF.

Craig was the founder and developer of Hearth.com, an independent hearth web site which has been active since 1995. Hearth.com is the most read hearth site in the world, with over 3.5 million site visits in 2013. As of January, 2014, Hearth.com was sold to Jim Fischer (Hearth.com LLC), who intends to further develop the site going forward.

Here is the background information on how I started Hearth.com

Online and Community Experience

I have been active online since long before the dawn of the internet age. I first joined Compuserve in the mid 1980’s and have been active in online communities and businesses since that time. Some of my friends and colleagues were active in the first internet communities, such as The Well, which was a forerunner of what is now called Social Media or Web 2.0. Before that time I had experience in HAM and CB radio (networks!) as well as actually living and working in REAL community.

What I can do for YOU

My current interests are – well – everything!

I am well versed in technology, community, construction, metal working, patents/trademarks and copyrights and the general fields of invention.

Qualifications

I bring 40+ years of self-employed experience to analyze your needs. Some of my work experience, listed by my age at the time, is detailed below:

18: Worked at Macrobiotic restaurant–Learned Nutrition and Cooking
20: Worked at Soy Dairy, exploring the uses and production of Soy milk and other soy products. Instrumental in the development of first Soy yogurt and Soy based ice creams
21: Vice President of demolition and salvage operation-Tore down and salvaged homes, barns and factory buildings (up to five stories). Sold recycled materials.
22-23: Learned carpentry and construction, worked on crew building houses, etc.
23-28: Started and operated successful remodeling company.
26-45: Started and operated Alternative Energy Business including stoves, Solar and conservation. Sold Business in 1998.
33-35: Bought and operated Wood stove manufacturing business- Learned the cast-iron foundry business as well as other aspects of metalworking.
35-40: Bought and operated importing and marketing company that sells Central Heating products. Visited Denmark twice. Introduced new products to the market successfully. Developed marketing and sales programs. Wrote Technical Manuals.
38-41: Invented and Patented new product–Manufactured and marketed same with first year sales exceeding projections. Sold business in 1998.
40-48: Created Hearth.com, a top rated site on the Internet. Also created many web sites for clients inside and outside the hearth industry.
48-58: Continuation of work on multiple projects – received patent for hearth and chimney related apparatus. Sold chimney company and patents. Hearth.com traffic (yearly) passed 3 million readers.
58-60+: Hearth.com hits new records – becomes larger than such well known web sites as ZipCar, The North Face, Brookstone and many others.

Date Based….from this point down……
2014 – Hearth.com sold to willing buyer who intends to further develop the site!
2013-2018 -Craig started a  new web site for drone (quadcopter) beginners which already has over 150,000 pages read monthly. Three Amazon ebooks and print books related to the drone site have become best-sellers – #1, #2 and #3 in the category. Book content is now available free (dated, but still relevant) on the Droneflyers.com web site.
2018 – Droneflyers.com site domain is sold  to leader in the Drone Publishing Business. Site will remain active and I will provide consulting and articles for the near future (as needed or strikes his fancy).
2018/2019 – What do YOU want help you with? I am working on some innovative inventions in the materials handling and noise abatement fields of invention….but have plenty of time to take on other projects. Please contact me at cissod at gmail.
2020-2021 – Pursuing mostly volunteer efforts.

Non Profit, Volunteer and Teaching Work

One of my non-profit projects involved setting up a complete computer lab and network at the Boys and Girls Club of Burlington County (NJ). We got Steve Wozniak (The Woz), a founder of Apple Computer, to help with the first donation for the project!

I also volunteered as an advisor, teacher and trainer at Hopework ‘N Camden, an org that teaches technology to disadvantaged youth in Camden, NJ. Subjects that I taught include digital video, digital photography and PHP/MySql programming. In 2014 I did a “drone camp” at Hopeworks, where an introduction to aerial robotics was given.

In recent years, I have taught “Bringing your Products to Market” and “Success on the Internet” at the local community college. More recently, I have been mentoring at Valley Ventures Mentoring Group, presented to 130+ “nerds” at Nerd Nite Noho  (on Community and on Drones) and also working with aerial photography and video.

I work with many other groups including the Legacy Bike Trail in SW Florida – both as a bike volunteer and with drone and other photography.

Craig established “local” sites as early as 1996 – here is an article about one of them!

Note about this Site

Some of the content here is quite aged – that’s OK, there is a lot of information and relevance in it for those who want to search it or dig around. Since I have recently (mid-2018) sold my last active (droneflyers.com) commercial site, I will update the layout and post some new articles and links here as well as a new twitter feed.

Some of my stories and opinions (I have LOTS of them) can be found at https://craigsfire.wordpress.com

Other Pursuits – Sailing, Family, Water (beach, bays, rivers, etc.).

Some pics……