kinuta

About ten days ago I had to do a full pc recovery and although I had almost all my important stuff backed up, I unfortunately lost a small piece of software that I used to format the memory stick of my Sony Cybershot digital camera. I've looked everywhere for a replacement freeware download but have drawn a blank. Can anyone help ? Many thanks in advance.

Thanks, John. I will be in Tokyo from at least 9/29 to 10/2. We are also planning to go to Kyoto and possibly Nara before heading to Hanoi, but our plans aren't set for that part of the trip yet. Meeting up would be great if the dates work out for you. Will be out of Japan from 9/6-9/21 but will be around the dates you mention so let's touch bases later in September. Actually, it would be great to meet Kinuta too, I am sure his Japanese is much better than mine! You may already know this, but the website for Metropolis, the main free Tokyo weekly, has a lot of information about upcoming events and other stuff. Here is the link: http://metropolis.co.jp/default.asp Anytime you want to meet just let me know.

Time permitting, I'd be happy to translate for you.

I can't answer all your questions but would offer these tips. For art, go to Bunkamura. It's located on the far corner of the ground floor of Tokyu Department store in Shibuya. They usually have one or two exhibitions running in the basement complex. There are several high end book and print shops next to the galleries and an open plan cafe to rest your feet. Two interesting shops with good designs are Tokyu Hands and Seibu Loft which are practically next door. HHStyle is excellent. Go to the main store which is located in Harajuku. which is the next station to Shibuya. I suggest walking, the whole area is very interesting and best explored on foot. Here's a guide map ref. for HH Style http://www.hhstyle.com/texts/shop_info/map_honten.html Harajuku has a large number of design shops and is worth exploring. For music and something a bit off the usual tourist map I'd definitely go up to Shimokitazawa. It's a very interesting area located four stops from Shibuya on the Inogashira line. There are loads of small shops, eateries, clubs etc. For food, well that's difficult. As has been mentioned without Japanese language skills you are really limited to pot luck. A good rule of thumb is Sushi restaurants are almost always good to excellent. For tempura then without doubt head for Tenya. It's cheap ( $20 for two)and good, you'll love it. http://www.tenya.co.jp/index.htm This boat trip is also great. Ignore the crappy ad. http://www.e-n-inter.jp/eg/tabi/himiko.html Go to Odaiba to see the bay area development, it's quite upscale and if you are up to it , a walk over the bridge has great views. Do it in conjunction with the boat trip. I'd check the net and print out as many English language guide maps as possible. You are entering a non English speaking environment and would be wise to get all your data, maps etc compiled before you come.

Thanks - I was just thinking Roppongi because it seems very central (at least on the map, which I know can be misleading) and because it seems like there are a lot of interesting art spaces there. I will look into Shinjuku. Just for a sense of scale, how long of a walk is it from Shibuya to Roppongi? I'm guessing 20-25 minutes? A bit more than that , say 40 minutes. One tip to save you some hassle, drop into the nearest station and buy a 'Pasmo' train pass, there's a $5.00 (500yen )refundable card charge. If you put say 3000-5000 yen on the card it will save you the hassle of buying tickets, waiting for ticket machines etc., just walk straight through the auto gates, you don't even have to insert the card, just touch the scanner. The subways are great here, you can get around very quickly. English language train system maps are available at most large stations. You can use Pasmo on all the trains and buses, although buses aren't recommended without Kanji reading skills.

I'm pretty sure that you'd find Shibuya more interesting. Roppongi is just a clubbers hangout. Shinjuku would be my first choice but you don't mention it as an option. Roppongi, Shibuya and Shinjuku are not far apart, no more than ten minutes or so my subway. If you need any pointers re shops or anything else feel free to ask.

Two quite recent worthy B&W's are 'Control', already mentioned, and 'Overlord'. 'Overlord' isn't a newly made film but I saw it for the first time recently. I couldn't get over the pristine stock footage that is extensively used in a very skillful way.

The Adams Effect (1985) Pepper Adams (baritone sax); Frank Foster (tenor sax); Tommy Flanagan (piano); Ron Carter (bass); Billy Hart (drums) Julian ( 1975 ) enja CD 9115-2 Pepper Adams ( baritone saxophone ) Walter Norris ( piano ) George Mraz ( bass ) Makaya Ntshoko ( drums ) Both great.

Thanks a lot, I'll do that.

Thank you for that. I've checked the exceptions list and it is not included. The plot thickens.

Thank you for that advice. Unfortunately being rather limited in my knowledge of pc's, I'm not sure how to do that. Any instructions you might care to offer would be most gratefully accepted.

Thank you for the advice, which I acted on immediately as I had neither of those programmes installed. I was surprised, to put it mildly, at the long list of suspect files thrown up by the Spybot Search & Destroy scan. It included two Trojan that hadn't been picked up by yesterdays Avast! scan. Unfortunately the Puritan Pride site problem remains unsolved but I'd like to thank you very much for drawing my attention to this hole in my pc protection. I'll be using Spybot on a regular basis henceforth, and will now investigate ' ad-aware' BTW, I'm currently using the latest version of Java Thanks again !

Thanks for the tips. Alas, I've tried them all without success. I have the latest version of Firefox, I tried, without success ' backdating' the pc and have accessed Puritan. com from my sister in law's pc without a glitch. Actually I've given the problem more than a week in the vain hope that it might fix itself. No dice.My wife placed an order using her sister's pc so there is no great urgency to solving the problem. I'm still puzzled and reluctant to reset the pc with all the related hassle. Any further pointers are, of course, greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. Yes, I'm 100% certain that I've accessed the correct site. I've tried three ways, the short cut menu, manually typing in the url and opening an email in received confirming the last order. All of them take me to the web site but I'm unable to select pages, log in or order stuff.

My wife has been ordering vitamin supplements on line for quite a long time. Recently she tried to place an order, the site opens but the pages within the site will not open, nor will the shopping basket basket etc.. The site is a big , well known company ' Puritan's Pride'. I've tried to solve the problem by repeated virus scans using Avast! and Norton and resetting the pc to an earlier date which repeatedly failed. I'm using Window XP & Firefox. I also tried using Explorer but without success. Short of resetting the pc completely I've run of , my limited, ideas. Can any kind soul help me out ? BTW I'm using Japanese software so some of the English terminology takes a little time to figure out.

There are so many b&w films to choose from it's impossible to say. Ones that look especially splendid to me are Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Lolita, Elevator To The Gallows , The Killers and the recent Criterion of This Sporting Life. For a b&w film shot in the colour film era, The Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There takes some beating

I've got Avast installed and it seems to be working well( touch wood). I was invaded by multiple Trojan viruses and Norton just wasn't helping. I came across Avast while searching for something to clean out the Trojan and it surprised me by how quickly it did the job. The daily database update is also good. I'll probably scrap Norton and upgrade to Avast($) pro version.

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but I couldn't resist posting Michael Phelps daily diet. It's a miracle the guy can walk, let alone swim ! Breakfast: Three fried egg sandwiches; cheese; tomatoes; lettuce; fried onions; mayonnaise; three chocolate-chip pancakes; five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast; bowl of grits; two cups of coffee Lunch: Half-kilogram (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread; energy drinks Dinner: Half-kilogram of pasta, with carbonara sauce; large pizza; energy drinks http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7562840.stm

Maybe The Worm -Jimmy McGriff and Satisfaction - Chris Farlowe.

Tortillas filled with chicken tika, spicy kidney beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and chilli mint sauce. Washed down with iced green tea. For dessert we had a luscious Hokkaido melon.

H37 L28 Humidity 80%*

Welcome back MG.

High 36C Low 27C All my non essential outdoor activity is suspended until this heat eases.

Thank you kindly sir.

What sad news. I remember almost wearing out my original copy of Hot Buttered Soul. The Hayes-Porter songs will live forever.