jamie goode's wine blog: Where is this picture from?

Friday, June 08, 2007

Where is this picture from?

Where is the picture above from? What can you tell me about it? As much detail as possible, please. [The filename will give no clues.]

With the end of my last laptop, I've thought about my IT situation. I earn my living with computers as a tool, so I should plan my IT stuff more efficiently.

Currently, I have one laptop, two desktops at home (which I don't use much), and a wireless network (connected to broadband, security enabled). I also have a desktop for my science editing job.

Backing up consists of dumping stuff at irregular intervals onto the science editing job network (which is rigorously backed up itself). I pick up emails through two accounts on two different machines, into three different mailboxes. This is an unsatisfactory situation, but I should lose one of the accounts when I go fully freelance in a few months.

The most urgent matter is instituting a rigorous, bombproof backing up procedure that I can then follow to the letter, because computers (and particularly hard disks) fail. Then I need to sort out my email: it all needs to come into just one mailbox - the current situation is too complex. And I need to stop using my inbox as a filing system. Once emails are dealt with they need to leave the inbox. I also need to deal with emails as soon as I read them, not read them, decide to reply later, procrastinate, and then forget to reply - which happens too often. It also makes me feel a mixture of weariness and guilt to come to a full inbox each day. If I fail to reply to an email it needs to be through a conscious decision not to reply, and the email needs to be deleted.

We humans are bad at changing. We read about change, talk about change, decide to change, but only seldom do we actually implement personal change. Well, I am going to implement change, and to do this I'm going to set myself achievable sub-goals. The first one is to source and purchase a USB hard disk. I shall use this to act as a back-up and storage device. I shall back up every week, on Sunday evening. I'll let you know how I get on.

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12 Comments:

At 2:41 PM, Blogger James said...

The countryside looks like England but the vines look (to my untrained eye) quite old so I'm guessing it isn't. I'm thinking Europe though, perhaps Germany or Austria?

I'm a bit of a hoarder with emails, and tend to leave them all on my IMAP server (except for spams) so I can refer to them at a later date. I find IMAP folders and the read/unread flag are perfectly adequate for keeping track of which emails I have and haven't replied to.

 
At 4:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

no hedges in the field of the hills, and old looking vines rule out Uk.. countryside looks european - so yeah, germany, or maybe even bulgaria?

 
At 5:51 PM, Anonymous Kinley said...

I see snowy mountains perhaps in the background, and the yellow stone of the road suggests the Vaud in Switzerland, or perhaps Kremstal, Austria?

 
At 6:51 PM, Blogger Michael Pollard said...

Could be anywhere. Old vines and a yellow (dirt) road - could be Australia. Not sure about the snowy mountains, looks more like an exposure problem from an overcast day.

Not that I know much about this, but the vines look old and look to have been pruned oddly; poorly spur pruned?. There is also only one wire holding up the vine, looks like two cordons/vine. Where is the rest of the trellising? Seems rather primative to me. Grass between the rows is probably going to be plowed under to provide nutrients. Exactly where this I have no idea. A guess would be Eastern Europe, or Spain, or.....

Mike

 
At 7:55 PM, Anonymous Colman said...

Jamie

Purchasing a USB hard disk will protect you next time your drive fails. But unless you are careful it won't protect you against a very common source of data loss: burglary.

If someone steals your desktop they will take your external drive at the same time and all your back-ups will be in vain.

If your fileset is reasonably small, consider backing up over the internet. Not only are you immune to burglary but you can backup from and restore to any geographical location.

If your fileset is too large or bandwidth too small, make sure your external drive is in locked drawer in your desk so that it doesn't get nicked when the time comes...

 
At 10:14 PM, Anonymous Corkit said...

Are they vines on the hills behind?

If they are with the poorly done double cordon, and the obvious very high yield that is going to result, then I would guess somewhere in the Marne, i.e they are Champagne vines.

 
At 3:50 AM, Blogger Mad Dog said...

I believe this picture has been taken in the Barossa Valley in SA, just south of Tanunda. The road you can see in the background is Rifle Range Road. The vines have been machine pruned (probably with a saw). They will probably still be getting a hand clean up? The green grass is a cover crop which will be either worked in or mowed as a green manure. I'm guessing the vines are fairly old Cabernet or possibly Shiraz on their own roots.

 
At 4:12 AM, Blogger burghlover said...

I agree with mad dog. These are spur pruned old (but not ancient) shiraz vines. I will stick my neck out and suggest that they are vines in the Mt Edelstone vineyard in the Barossa Valley.

 
At 9:26 AM, Blogger Jamie said...

Mad Dog is right - inside info, I guess - helps if this is where you live. The vines have just been machine pruned - you'd hope they were going to get a hand tidy-up, but this picture was taken just around the time of budburst, in September, so the grower was running a little late. Cover crop yet to be ploughed in. Looks remarkably European with the hill in the background, doesn't it?

 
At 11:50 AM, Blogger Tim said...

Curious picture. Hillsides could be almost anywhere that receives reasonable rainfall. Cover crop, high vine density and bi-lateral cordon suggest trying to balance a vigorous site. Pruning looks machine done but the density makes it look like it may be hard to work by tractor. Single wire is interesting, I have never seen that in Spain or France but I have not visited all the regions. Vines are fairly old (20-30 years)but none appear planted on the hillsides so it may suggest new world. Never seen single wires in California. Never seen SA but the climate looks right from what I have read. Could also be New Zealand but the picture does not remind me of what I have read and the vines are fairly old for most of the country. Lack of top wires suggest they may want to shade the fruit zone by letting the cordons drape the vines. Warmer climate than I initially thought.

OK, here goes. New World, most likely SA or AU. Lush area, could be Paarl, Stellenbosch, Robertson; AU Langhorne Creek, Clare Valley, parts of Western Australia.

Vine age, cover crop, attempts to de-vigor, machine work visible: Clare Valley, Australia.

First post by the way. I have been reading your books and articles in Harper's since entering the MW program in 06. Love your site and refer to it daily in my practice writing and for work.

Glad to hear someone else does not back up like they should. Just bought a 500GB hard drive last month for my business and now I back up my own laptop weekly.

 
At 12:59 PM, Blogger Mad Dog said...

So, what do I win?!!? A pre loved laptop computer maybe??? The grower in the picture may not have been running late with his pruning, he may have been trying to minimise his frost risk. Pruning early varieties just as they are bursting has been shown to delay bud burst by up to 14 days. This grower may have been right on time. The single wire is a fairly typical Barossa trellis system.

 
At 8:08 AM, Anonymous Bertrand said...

I would say that this is Jura. Looks very much like the hilly landscape near Arbois. Also, the Double Guyot training system is very common there.

 

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