August/September I&A

See what I did there?  The current issue of I&A has begun distribution.  Due to my different workload this semester I didn't get around to 1) doing this on anything close to a normal schedule, and 2) get around to a separate September issue.

 

Also, don't expect to see anything else "new" from I&A until 2013.  The next two issues will be October and December, focusing on Russia and China and primarily consisting of updated articles on air defense, strategic forces, etc.  There won't be anything in November, the idea is to leave a lot of space open to ensure that all of the updating is complete on time (in theory). 

 

Because of the current workload issue, I may go to a bimonthly schedule in 2013.  We'll see.  If I get things under control the rest of the year, I may be able to retain the hypothetical monthly schedule.

 

Finally, anything notable will appear either here or as an I&A special report for the rest of the year for the reasons listed above.  I also have a rather large (over 100 sites) update to the SAM Site Overview to process as well.

August I&A

A brief update:  the August I&A is being finalized, but may require some work on Saturday to complete given my new schedule.  I now teach five days a week instead of my more typical two, but I can't complain.  As such you may see it in your inbox during the first week of September rather than over the weekend.

 

There are two outstanding contributor pieces focusing on China and Pakistan, as well as two pieces of my own covering air defense updates in the Caucasus region and a new method of classifying military locations in Google Earth (or any other GIS program for that matter).

 

Remember that September will be a new issue, but October will not; October will be an updated, consolidated Russia-centric issue.  Then November will be new, and December will be a repeat of October but China-focused.

Also, the next Jane's Intelligence Review contains an article I wrote covering present and future upgrades to Russia's strategic nuclear arsenal.  We got some great satellite imagery in there of some of the new Voronezh BMEW radars, and a few other interesting locations.

Lastly, if you heard someone on Voice of America talking about SAMs in Syria...yeah, that was me.

 

I'll get back to work now.

I&A, the Business Model. Or something.

So I'm trying to wrap my brain around a way to get out there and use my brain to generate additional sources of money.  Which CFO-House usually transforms into apparel, or VP-Destruction demands for whatever the latest toy on the market is, but that's another issue entirely! 

My current line of thinking is some sort of consulting or analytical service, which I mentioned last month. 

First, a few disclaimers.

1.  Everything posted here is and will always remain free of charge.  The same goes for the I&A PDF.  I do those because I find it interesting, and because I'm apparently good at it, or so I'm told.

2.  Also free:  academic-related help.  I've assisted people who've contacted me with various things from finding sources to reviewing theses.  If you've got a question along those lines, or any other general question of amusement, don't hesitate to contact me.  You won't be getting a bill!

I've obviously started channeling brainwaves into cash deposits via my work with IHS Jane's, and will begin to pursue other similar opportunities as well.

The point of my new idea is to offer a fee-based service to, well, pretty much anyone, providing detailed analysis or imagery interpretation.  I haven't completely thought this through yet, with questions such as "do I need to set up a legitimate business" or "is there red tape to cut" still in the future.

The question right now remains:  is there a market?  Which can be translated as:  do you know of anyone who would benefit from such a service?  Pass my e-mail along to anyone you can think of that might be in the market for this kind of work.  Foreign clients are certainly acceptable, provided they aren't asking me to do something illegal under US law.

The idea is to take on analytical or analysis tasks and do the groundwork, delivering a finished product to a user.  The product can be a document, a KML file, or an annotated image or map.

The one caveat here is that if a user requests imagery-based analysis, they may have to provide externally-sourced imagery.  When we use imagery in Jane's, it's purchased directly from a provider so they have the rights to use it "for profit" (and lets us use imagery that's typically far more current than you can find in Google Earth).  I'll have to look into the guidelines a bit more from Google to see what's what with this issue.  Incidentially this is one of the main reasons I&A will never cost you a dime, because it prevents me from having to purchase rights to the imagery!

As far as a pricing system goes, I haven't thought too far on that either.  But I'm certainly not interested in making this my plan to join the 1 Percent, or throwing myself into an obnoxious tax bracket.  I do intend to use a per-project fee, rather than an hourly rate system, because it makes things a lot easier to deal with and I don't have to justify spending seven hours looking at one single image.

Once I get a better idea of the entire process, the pricing plan, and whatnot, I'll post a PDF file here outlining the way things will work.  I should probably get something together containing my areas of expertise and professional experience as well, that'd probably help.

So, is this a good idea, or have I completely lost my mind?

Which is always a distinct possibility.

July I&A going out tomorrow

UPDATE:  the first set of e-mails just went out.  Expect to see the e-mail within the next day or two.

Here's the link to download the June issue, for everyone else:  CLICK

July's I&A will go out tomorrow afternoon once I finish tweaking the book review bit.  I'd have had it done today but I got sidetracked doing final grades for the semester and taking care of some edits to my next Jane's feature covering Russian strategic force developments.  The KML file will be really amusing this time, there are a ton of palcemarks for Libya.

All for now!

July I&A and other info

July's I&A is coming along and will be distributed on time by the end of the month.  Topics will be as follows:

-A book review

-Analysis of BDA from Libya in 2011

-The ROK's ADD Complexes

-An update to the Chinese radars in Syria business

Expect a KML file for this issue as well.

Moving forward, expect "normal" I&A issues to appear every month except October and December.  Those months are reserved for Russia and China respectively, and will serve as annual volumes focusing specifically on each state.  They'll include both the content in last year's issues, as well as Russia or China focused content from other I&A issues.  Everything will get updates.

Also, my next Jane's article will focus on the updating of Russian strategic forces, to include the ABM and BMEW networks, and should appear in the August issue of Intelligence Review.  Or maybe September.  It depends on what the cover date is versus when it goes to print.  I'll post the link here once it goes on the IHS website, as I did with the previous one.

Lastly, I'm thinking of offering some sort of professional-type consulting service.  More to follow on that early August, probably.

Going "Live"

UPDATE:  No word yet as to the time, so it may be pushed to early next week.  I assume that the BBC might be paying a lot of attention to that Andy Murray guy right about now...

Either tonight or tomorrow I'll be doing a live radio interview with the BBC on 5 Live.  You can listen in online at the link, it'll be sometime between 2000 and 2200 (that's 8PM - 10PM in US Eastern Time).  I should have a bit more info regarding the schedule later today, at which point I'll post an update.

The topic will be the Syrian air defense situation, including the Turkish RF-4E shootdown.

BBC on Syria; July I&A

Here's something from the BBC that you all might find interesting:  CLICK 

In other news, the topics for July's I&A are shaping up as follows:

-A look at BDA of Libyan SAM sites struck in 2011, with an eye to what this represents as far as current SEAD/DEAD tactics go (seems like this might be relevant in the near future)

-A look at the ROK's ADD complexes

-A follow-on to the I&A special report published over the weekend examining the coverage of Chinese-sourced EW assets located in Syria

Those are all well on their way to being done, and I'm still looking at a few other ideas.  One idea is to explain the problems with this article.

I'm also re-working the layout for the imagery template I use in I&A.  The big one, like the one I posted here for the captured Syrian Type 120 EW site.  I currently have two issues to resolve, and one idea to incorporate.  First, I need to shrink the upper border a bit, to give more space to the image.  And maybe add a surrounding border as well.  Secondly, I need to figure out how to save the finished images properly so that they don't screw up the color.  Look at any of the big images in I&A, including the maps.  Any time I use red (which is a lot), the red parts look ugly in the saved image.  Nice and bright on-screen during creation, not so much after the save.  This is an image issue, not an issue converting to PDF, as it does this to the saved image before I do anything else with it.  The idea I'll be including at some point is to generate a system of identifiers for each location I show.  This can then be cross-referenced with the SAM Site Overview placemarks. 

And now I have a nice six-day weekend for the holiday, to spend working on my next IHS Jane's feature and some of July's I&A.