3:34 p.m. Hmmm. I thought if I could connect the Macintosh to my Windows to form a LAN or Ethernet, I would be able to either find Mac on Windows browser or vice versa. But this didn't happen, possibly because the OS8.6 mounted on my Mac did not support SMB, while my Windows lap-top didn't support AFP.

After a lot of searching, I've learned that Macs communicate with other computers or computing devices using its own language that Apple has developed. Windows, on the other hand, does not understand this language as they operate in their own language. LaterApple OSs, however, were mounted with a language system called SMB, as a solution to this problem. Though unfortunately, my old Mac doesn't have it installed, so it cannot share files with a Windows machine.

The idea of finding and installing the SMB protocol is not practical at this point. Another idea is to set up an FTP server on my Windows and send out the files from my Mac as html files. Hmmm. Guess I need to learn more.

The End

Caterpillar

3:12 p.m. As I was pondering what to do about my old Mac situation, Cow came and pointed out that perhaps I could run a Mac OS emulator on my Windows.

Hadn't thought about that. Think I've read somewhere that it could become quite a complicating task, though. Anyway, might as well check that out.

The End

Caterpillar

2:34 p.m. O-kay. I've learned that Windows and Macintosh can be connected on a network if you use the TCP/IP protocol, even if you don't have anything to support each other's language. And that once they're connected on a network, all you have to do now is to make use of the Web Sharing function on your Macintosh, and you'll be able to download whatever file you want to on your Windows machine. My PowerPC 7200/90 is mounted with J1-OS 8.6, so I should be able to use this Web Sharing function which has been equipped since OS 8.1.

I flipped back the pages in my notebook to check if I'd seen it on my Mac's control panel and was met with dismay. In my August 24th notes it says that I've tried accessing the Web Sharing control panel via OS Help, however, my Mac fed me a "Could not open control panel. Control Panel is either disabled or not installed."

Unable to accept this truth, it seems I've tried accessing from the apple menu. But there was no Web Sharing listed in my control panel list. Oh, God. How could this happen? Wasn't it supposed to be a standard feature?

The End

Caterpillar

4:40 p.m. Kei Nishikori has made the top 4 in U.S. Open, to be the first Japanese in 96 years (96 years!) since Kazuya Kumagai. News has just been delivered that Nishikori is playing against Djokovic in the semi-final. Wow. A Uniqlo match.

Meantime, I've miraculously dug out notes about installing an editting software in my Mac, which had an FTP. That means I might be able to send out the files from my Mac with this FTP. I'll have to check out if I could send those files directly to my Windows' public files, while connecting the two PCs with a crossing cable.

Also, I'll have to see if I can access the Internet with my Mac again. If I could, then I would be able to send the files to an online storage. I'll have to check this out so as not to narrow down my options. Cow says it's important to have a wide vision. How right he is!

The End

Caterpillar

2:46 p.m. I've found out that Windows 7 is mounted with something called IIS (Internet Information Services) which can work as an FTP server. It seems to be unavailable at its default state, but can be used after being activated and installed. So here's one solution to my extracting-data-from-my-Mac problem.

Another solution, I discovered, is to connect my Mac to the Internet and send the data onto a web server via FTP. Later, I could download the data onto my Windows. Though am not sure if I could really do this, as my modem/router does not support the version of Open Transport protocol on my Mac. Still, it would be better to have a second option.

The End

Caterpillar

1:13 p.m. Realize have been checking out informations on how to move the data on my old Mac to my Windows lap-top all week.

Well I've finally come up with solutions, so am going to carry them out tomorrow. I'll try plan A, sending out files via FTP first, then if that doesn't work, switch to plan B, uploading the files onto a rental server. But the hardest part of carrying out these plans, I'm afraid, is to get up early enough to finish the task before evening.

The End

Caterpillar

7:55 p.m. Have tried connecting my computers with crossing cable and setting TCP/IP for both computers. I thought I'd done all the searching I need and had all the information I need to know. I was wrong. I had a glitch in my plans.

Things went smooth until I came to the setting of TCP/IP of my Windows. I couldn't find Internet Protocol Version 4 to change the setting in the property list of my local area network. I'd totally forgotten that I'd set up a network bridge so I could access the Interenet with my iPad mini via my Windows lap-top. In my relief that I'd finally found the list, I've jumped to conclusions as usual, and changed the setting of my network bridge. Windows has hung up. I couldn't close the property window, even with task manager. Eventually, I had to shut the system down and start up from safe mode. The system recovered except for the network, which I'd lost Internet access. Good thing I'd made a recovery point before I started all this. I restored the system from recovery point.

9:20 p.m. All things considered, I decided to stop this right here until next Sunday, when I'll have the next day off due to a public holiday. Hopefully, I could plug up the holes in my plans in the meantime.

The End

Caterpillar

3:06 p.m. Before I start on any further searching, I'll have to check out where I can watch U.S. Open tennis streaming live.

Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori has been performing incredibly well since he matched up with his new coach Michael Chang, a former French Open champion. Kei has beaten Novack Djokovic, the current top world ranker, and is now facing a new challenge to be the first Japanese to win a Grand Slam. Unfortunately though, no domestic tv stations apart from WOWWOW (cable tv) is broadcasting the match. I had to watch the semi-final on live streaming.

Wonder what's preventing the ground wave stations to broadcast such an important match, the broadcast right or the fees? Whatever it is, they should pay what they have to and broadcast the match. This match is definitely going to go down in our sports history. It can also deliver so much hope and courage to so many people, if they only put it on air so that we can watch without paying extra fees. And that's something you can't buy with money.

The End

Caterpillar

4:27 p.m. It was a tough match for Nishikori.

I forced myself up at 6 this morning, to watch the final of U.S. Open. Cilic became the champion winning three sets straight. He was literally unstoppable. He had great, powerful serves, and his strokes were sharp and heavy. Congrats, Mr. Cilic, you deserve the champion trophy.

Kei couldn't do much today. Apparently, he was beside his usual self. But he was brave enough to fight till the very end and I'm so proud of him. It takes a lot of nerve and courage to just stand in that center court, let alone play against someone like today's Cilic. I'm sure this experience will make him even stronger. As Kelly Clarkson says, what doesn't kill you make you stronger.

Thank you, Kei Nishikori, for the magnificent championship. I'll be looking forward to seeing you again in the same court next year.

The End

Caterpillar

3:14 p.m. I've found a nice Sento (communal bath) on my way home.

I never thought there would be a Sento in such a central part of Tokyo, also well known as one of the shopping spots for tourists. Here, I can drop by on my way home from work. It's only a few minutes walk from the nearest station, on the first floor of a modern building. Inside, the facility is modern and clean with jazz music in the background. Hmm, interesting. I never linked jazz to Sento before, but I discovered that the music adds a modern, stylish touch.

With simple furnishings but comfortable and relaxing space, this Sento provides heated soft water which can be as good for your skin as an Onsen. And the price for a Sento Course (use for 3-hour stay without towels, shampoo, conditioner or bodysoap) is 460 yen, tax-deferred! I'll have to bring my bath kit and some towels, though that wouldn't be much of a problem if I could enjoy this luxury without making a detour just for the bath.

You want to know where it is? Well, find it yourself 'cause I'm not telling ya. I don't want my new downtown oasis to get too crowded.

The End

Caterpillar

3:25 p.m. I've found this video clip of a masked hero on the streets of Nihon-bashi, Tokyo. He's not one of those Yuru-kyara made by the government that we see so often these days. He's just a town hero acting on his own will. He doesn't have any special weapons, he only has a broom and a dustpan. But he believes that he can help bring peace to the world through the power of cleaning. Masked Hero Sweeps Clean

His name is Mangetsu-man, "mangetsu" literally meaning "full moon". That reminds me of a pretty guardian in the past, who'd punish you after this particular phrase, "on behalf of the moon, I will punish you!" Though Mangetsu-man seems to have a more quiet and broad-minded character.

I like clean environments. That's why I'm trying to get rid of things in my room, with the struggling of extracting data from my old Mac being the very first step. If I pass by Nihon-bashi, I'd love to help this hero clean up the town. And when I do, I'd be most glad if I could give him a hug.

The End

Caterpillar

3:30 p.m. Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho has won Women's Wrestling World Championship. Icho was overwhelming, Yoshida, not to mention.

Our athletes have been performing excellently lately, women's baseball, women's softball both won the world championship, while Nishikori made the final in U.S. Open. Kunieda and Kamiji bothe won a double crown in Doubles and singles in U.S. Open. Our soccer team is a bit behind, but they're just getting started after the World Cup so they deserve some more time.

Among these sports, news has been delivered that a new racing sport is going to start from 13th, September. Formula E is a new motor sports racing world championship series run in electric cars. I've just learned last Sunday that Aguri Suzuki, the former F1 team director is coming back in this new sport as Amlin Aguri Formula E team. This afternoon, I've discovered that Takuma Sato is going to join the team as their driver! Yeah! They're going to broadcast the opening race in Beijing on TV Asahi tomorrow afternoon from 4:45. Must set the recorder. MUST.

The End

Caterpillar

1:58 p.m. Holiday, holiday, Monday is a holiday. Can work on my data transfer to my heart's content.

I hope my struggles would pay off, though. As I've mentioned earlier, the data transfer itself isn't my goal. My goal is to get rid of things and clean up my room, to make it a more comfortable place to stay in.

The End

Caterpillar

2:49 p.m. Yoshinori Sakai, the last bearer of the Olympic flame in the 1969 Tokyo Olympics have passed away on September 10th. Forty-six years ago, this man who was born on August 6, 1939, spread our message of hope for peace out to the world. He was a symbol of peace.

In six years' time, we are having our second Olympic games in Tokyo. And I strongly feel, that now is the time to renew our determination to attain peace. That we shall not hurt each other, but keep working hard to exchange our messages and try understanding each other. Let's not let our hope for peace be gone with the body of Mr. Sakai. Let his soul remain in our hearts forever and ever.

The End

Caterpillar

11:59 p.m. For two days, I've tried connecting my old Mac to my Windows pc but in vain.

I've set up an FTP server enabling IIS on my Windows then tried accessing it from my Mac's FTP client, though I couldn't get a connection. I have no idea whether there was something wrong with my IIS setting or my FTP client setting. Am completely lost and don't know what to do any more. The best I could do, I guess, would be to review the settings of both the server and the client and try again, but am too tired and discouraged to go through that.

The End

Caterpillar

3:04 p.m. Okay, calm down, calm down. It was important to isolate the problems at a time like this.

So I need to find out whether I'm having a problem in connecting the 2 computers, or something else. If there's nothing wrong with the connection, then the problem must lie in the setting of FTP server and/or client.

First thing I need to do is to try connecting the computers once again and execute a ping command from my Windows' command line, to see if the ping is successful, which means that the IP connection has been properly established. Then, I suppose I should try checking the setting of my FTP client. If it's properly set, I shall be able to upload files onto my rental server. Then, if things still don't work out, I can tell that there must be something wrong with the setting of my FTP server. How's that?

The End

Caterpillar

2:01 p.m. While I've been struggling with my computers, Tetsuzo Sato has announced his retirement from his former job as a JRA jockey. I'll sure miss his aggressive riding style, but if that's his decision, I'd like to respect it.

Sato was smashed against the rail while riding in Race 10 at Kyoto on November 24th, 2012. He suffered from several fractures, has gone under major surgeries six times and has been working hard in his rehab trainings, but decided he won't be able to come back as a jockey this summer when he visited his partner Kizuna at Daisen Hills Training Center. Thanks, Tetchan, for all the exciting races you've shown us. I particularly liked the Japan Cup you won on Tap Dance City. That was a beauty.

In the meantime, Just Away and Gold Ship has finished their last training in Japan. Seems their coming out nicely, especially, Gold Ship. I'm seriously starting to think of opening an account at William Hill's.

The End

Caterpillar

2:59 p.m. Scotland is having a big day.

The referendum for their indepedence is going to take place this afternoon, Japan time. News says we'll be informed of the results as soon as tomorrow afternoon. My friend has been busy doing volunteer work for this day for a year now, and I hope her hard work would be rewarded. Independence or no independence, this referendum might accelerate other ethnic mnovements which I hope, will not escalate to any conflicts or worse, warfare.

On the other hand, I'm simply jealous of the Scots' situation that they can decide their own future by holding a referendum. Don't think I've ever expereienced such a thing in Tokyo as far as I can remember. The closest thing, I believe, was the the Lower House general election in 2005.

The End

Caterpillar

4:07 p.m. The results of the referendum for Scotland's independence has been announced. Scotland stays as part of the U.K.

It must have been a let down for my friend as she has been working hard on the pro-independence party. Though we must respect the results as it is. That there are many people who think it would be better for Scotland to stay in the U.K. Still, people who supported independence shall not give up hope. The fact will remain that nearly half the population are not happy with the situation surrounding Scotland.

The End

Caterpillar

12:24 p.m. The three horses entering in l'Arc de Triomphe, Harpstar, Just Away and Gold Ship has left their respective stables to fly to Amsterdam first, and then to France.

The horses were supposed to take a direct flight to France, however, they were forced to take detour due to the strike actions by pilot unions. Great. Today of all days. The horses must go through an eight-hour ride from the airport to the stable they're staying in France. If it hadn't been for the strike, they'd only needed an hour's ride.

It makes me think like they don't want Japanese horses to win. But of course, this wasn't deliberate?

The End

Caterpillar

10:03 p.m. Tried executing a ping command from my Windows after connecting it with my old Mac with a crossing cable.

Command prompt has returned "Packets: Sent=4, Received=4, Lost=0(0% loss)." That means the network between the 2 computers are established, If I'm getting this right. So there must be something wrong with the setting of either the FTP Server or the client. Okay, so maybe I'm moving a step forward.

Harpstar, Just Away and Gold Ship has also moved a step forward to l'Arc. It seems they've arrived in Chantilly without incident.

The End

Caterpillar

2:52 p.m. Hmm... It transpired that the network actually hadn't been successfully established.

I thought it was okay, as long as the command prompt returned "Packets: Sent=4, Received=4, Lost=0(0% loss)," since the packets were sent and received without any loss. But there were a couple more lines before this, indicating that the network was at fault and no response has ben received. Guess I'm back to the start. Oh, well. I'll just have to keep working on it.

My friend in Scotland has sent a short reply to my wish-you-luck message that I'd sent. She seems to be very disappointed. I could almost feel the anger in her remarks against those who voted "No" to independence. No surprise there. I would have been both enraged and depressed if I were in her place. As a matter of fact, I remember feeling like there's no hope living in Japan, when our petition demanding a referendum had been voted down in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. Our fellow Tokyoites had collected over 320,000 sinatures about a very importatn issue in our lives, especially after the Touhoku earthquake, and our government doesn't even give us a chance to hold a referendum? Who wouldn't be disappointed? Still, life do go on.

The End

Caterpillar

11:23 p.m. Network can not be established.

Have checked the version of my network device driver, but it was the newest. Think I've set the home network porperly. TCP/IP protocol seems to be available. So what exactly is wrong? How come I can't set up the network between my old Macintosh?

Well, guess I'll just have to keep searching and learning. Anyway, I never thought it would have so much trouble just setting up a simple LAN.

The End

Caterpillar

3:10 p.m. I got it.

I keep a notebook to record all the problems I had with my computer, and my struggles to solve them. I write down notes from my searching, in case they might brighten me up when I'm stuck with problem solving. And it suddenly hit me this morning, that I must have written some notes about the term "Home Group" on Windows 7.

On my commuting train, I've flipped through the pages and finally found what I was looikng for. According to my notes, "Home Group" was provided from Windows 7, as a more user-friendly interface of network settings compared to WIndows XP's one-and-only Work Group. However, as it was mounted from Windows 7, Home Group does not allow other OS computers to be included in its network, including Windows before Vista.

That must be it. I've been trying make a TCP/IP protocol network join my Home Group on Windows 7. My notes say that I should use the Work Group and my Work Network for other OS computers. It says so in red, which means I thought it was important when I took it down. How could I have missed it? Well, all the more reason I've got to get things organized.

The End

Caterpillar

2:50 p.m. Since my morning meeting has been cancelled and I had some time, I checked out some old datum about Prix l'Arc de Triomphe champions.

A couple of things that jumped out were, a) there are few foreign champions, b) champion horses run certain prep races, and c) fillies have been winning for the past three years.

I cannot say for sure before I have a more intensive analysis, but Gold Ship seems promissing. True, there were only three horses in the past 16 years, that won the Arc from 2,000m distance races; Sakhee, Dylan Thomas and See The Stars. True, they're not Asian horses, they didn't have to travel long distance. Still it makes Gold Ship look promising. The reason, I'll explain tomorrow.

The End

Caterpillar

3:42 p.m. First of all, there was an error in yesterday's Murmur. I wrote that fillies have been winning for the past three years, but Solemia was four years old. Sorry about that.

Now, the reason why Gold Ship seems a promissing winner. Two of the three horses that have won Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in the past 16 years bothe ran a shorter distance as their prep race. Remember I'd written that a shorter distance experience stimulates the horse's performance? The data seem to back this up. Additionally, Gold Ship performs well in his first try in new circumstances. For example, he won his first race, and his first challenge in a grade one (top category) race was a victory. He also won Arima-kinen, his first challenge against older horses while he lost in 3rd place the next year. All the more reason he'd perform well in his first challenge overseas.

Of a few concerns that remain now, the most crucial would be whether he'd be able to draw the inner barrier or not.

The End

Caterpillar

2:49 p.m. Someone please let me sleep, I am sleepy as can be.

I've googled "how to drive away sleep" and here are some of the tips to get rid of sleep : Sleep enough, drink coffee or tea, drink a glass of water, breathe deep, wash your face, rest for a moment, keep the room bright, chat, exercise, sleep. But what if I'm too sleep to do any of those?

I've started a new 30-day challenge, by the way. I'm trying to walk at least 15,000 steps a day, preferrably, over 25,000 steps.

The End

Caterpillar

10:33 p.m. Orange osmanthus known as sweet tea is coming to full bloom in the past two days, filling the air with rich fragrance. The season is gradually but certainly moving on while I've been making no progress in my data transfer whatsoever.

My Windows 7 will not let my Macintosh join the network, or vice versa. I can't come up with the reason, nor do I know what else I could do for the moment. The autumn grade one races are starting from next weekend, although I was hoping to finish this data transfer by then. Must either come up with a practical solution or give it up.

The End

Caterpillar

3:49 p.m. I was racking my brains to come up with solutions for my data transfer, putting aside writing this Murmur. Then Cow asks me if I'd finished writing.

I just told him three minutes ago that I haven't written a line yet, and he asks me if I've finished.

Is Cow showing early signs of dementia or is he simply not listening to a word I say? Hmm... Both are likely.

The End

Caterpillar

3:00 p.m. I've just heard from Cow that he'd seen in a TV program that there's been fraudulence in the refrendum for Scotland's independence. What!? Why didn't he tell me earlier?

If there really has been such things going on, fairness demands that the referendum shall be held again. It doesn't matter if it was big or small, as long as there was fraudulence, that means the referendum was not carried out justly. I believe this is a serious act of breach. Must go and search for details later.

The End

Caterpillar