1. On a gray morning with scattered snow flurries the Northern troupe, ably piloted by Deliberator, floated to our Roudigan's destination. Waiting for Geronimo, the clock on the Buick dash blinked out signifying about 10 minutes since the engine had stopped and no doors had opened. Shortly afterwards, at 11:31 AM, our sturdy Southern anchor arrived. Entering the establishment, we were greeted by our HVBS Official Waitress, Jessica. Drinks ordered - cabernet sauvignon for Deliberator and PC Wiz, a Heineken for Shadow and hot tea for Geronimo, the meeting immediately moved to a tech discussion.
2. Shadow notified members of an internet worm called "BlackWorm" due to hit computers on February 3 which would be very destructive to the systems. He advised extreme caution in opening e-mails on that date. Geronimo mentioned an e-mail with a subject entitled "Osama bin Laden Killed (or captured)" with a virulent attachment. Jessica asked to enter the conversation with the statement that her brother, using her computer, had "locked up" the machine by acquiring a virus. Since the machine is vital to write her term papers, Deliberator advised her to be sure her anti-virus was up-to-date. She thought it was and was cleaning out her brother's downloads. Geronimo, with his desktop networked with Danny's laptop over the same cable connection but with separate IP's, finds they can not view each other's files. Shadow talked of his use of networked computers at Callanan - 26 to 30 computers accessed by passwords which restricted users to information related to their jobs. PC Wiz admitted confusion about networking; thinking it included multiple users of a single machine. He was assured by Geronimo and Shadow that it meant only multiple computers linked together.
3. Shadow informed HVBS members of a change of e-mail address due to a problem. Deliberator was unaware of the change, had sent mail that had not yet been returned. PC Wiz promised to send him the new address. Discussion turned to Shadow's experience with his new $14.95 "slower" DSL service. He said it was not noticeable at most times and was very satisfactory. Geronimo then mentioned serious slow-downs at times on his Road-Runner service, especially on school "snow days" when the neighborhood youngsters were all using their computers. This is not a problem for members on DSL - which is unavailable to Geronimo - but during the morning hours Geronimo is usually on the service is fine. Deliberator asked for advice on setting the time of updates for AVG; Geronimo detailed the procedure to change the times. The discussion turned to the telephone services offered over cable. Geronimo stated his phone bill runs between $70- $80 a month and had been considering VOIP (and a Verizon offer of local, unlimited Regional and unlimited long distance calls in US, Canada and Puerto Rico for a $39.95 monthly price) such as Time-Warner or Vonage. PC Wiz volunteered that, while Time-Warner had an agreement with Verizon, Vonage did not - resulting in long delays in approval of transferring the same telephone numbers. At this point, Shadow reviewed his problems with Time-Warner TV cable programming and re-stated his commitment to reducing his service at the next inevitable rise in the monthly bill.
4. PC Wiz explained the "Historical Review" item in the agenda. He thought it would be interesting to see what concerned the membership five years in the past. Shadow congratulated Geronimo on the "surgeons and politicians" quote and Deliberator regaled us with his Freecell record - 171 wins in a row; he says he is better than ever (the game requires a lot of strategy and concentration to win). Deliberator read the agenda item congratulating PC Wiz on his correct prediction of the Giants season record. PC Wiz accepted members congrats graciously. No one wished to pursue discussion of the dreadful Panthers play-off game final of 23-0 (Shadow on the Giants - "those schizophrenic idiots"). Not much interest was shown in Super Bowl XL. Concerning predictions: Deliberator and Geronimo picked Seattle while Shadow thought Pittsburgh would win the game. Geronimo raise the issue of bad refereeing (admission by the league commissioner of a critical bad call against the Giants). PC Wiz learned that the referees are part-time in football and Shadow summed up the problem with "good for instant re-play". HVBS members were apprised that Deliberator, receiving a bowling ball gift from Ryan, has returned to bowling after 30 years.
5. In our Current News segment Geronimo brought up the "plantation" remark by Hillary Clinton, re-iterating that she cannot win if nominated for President. Regarding Senator Biden (at the Alito hearings); to members' remarks that he talks too much Deliberator retorted that he had "diarrhea of the mouth". At this time Geronimo and Deliberator are supporting "middle of the road" Senator McCain. Deliberator recounted a recent poll on rating Presidents. John F. Kennedy was selected as number one prompting Shadow to retort: "biggest gigolo" president, and President Bush as the worst. PC Wiz considered JFK's term too short to judge and members mostly thought it would have to be President Roosevelt while Shadow held out for Harry Truman. President Reagan was generally thought to be under-rated; PC Wiz mentioned the recent book of Reagan personal letters that showed him as a thoughtful, well-read person. Geronimo's report on the book "On Bullshit" by professor Harry Frankfurt (a gift to Shadow from Geronimo) prompted Deliberator to remark, "What is the world coming to? Geronimo read a book?". To his great relief, he was assured that it is a "talking-book", not a hard copy book. Geronimo reported that he enjoyed the presentation and considered himself now an expert on detecting bullshit. The CD was given to Deliberator for review.
6. Geronimo informed HVBS members that he had purchased a new snow blower - a 7 horsepower electric start Ariens, at an exceptional price (PC Wiz and Deliberator also have older Ariens). Although they have been having the drive plowed it was still necessary for plowing the "doggy path". Although he has been shoveling for 65 years and enjoys the exercise, Shadow mentioned their (Associate Member Shirley's) one foot electric snow thrower which does yeoman duty. On the subject of fuel prices Shadow, while he has a high efficiency furnace using natural gas, predicted 30-35% increases this Winter. Geronimo, using oil (no gas available), has experienced increases of 65-70%. Deliberator volunteered that he had not opted for the expensive high-efficiency furnace because of limited years of use and not foreseeing the increase in gas prices. PC Wiz showed his receipt and reported on recycling his old Dell Pentium II computer at a cost of $14.53. Deliberator was astounded (as had been PC Wiz) that there was a sales tax of $1.08 on the recycling! Geronimo thought that he should have gotten cash for the machine - not be charged; technology changes so rapidly that there is no value and disposal is a real problem. Shadow updated us on the Hudson River dredging scheduled to start in 2007. A law suit has been filed to curtail noise from the dredging in the daytime (it will be a 24-7 operation once started). HVBS members went over the familiar grounds of being legal deposits; Geronimo asked who should pay to remove them other than the polluter - Shadow replied to Geronimo's consternation, the public, since they had been legally approved.
7. Which led to Shadow commending NY comptroller Allan G. Hevesi (http://www.osc.state.ny.us/) uncovering in one of the first upstate schools investigated, Voorheesville, of misuse of $216,000 by former school district administrators. Geronimo added that Hevesi runs the public employees pension fund and is "doing a good job". Official Waitress Jessica served our final round of coffee with no desserts ordered. Official Scheduler Deliberator proposed Wednesday March 15, 2006 for our second meeting of the year. Members ratified the proposed date and adjourned to the ever popular jelly bean dispenser in the restaurant lobby.

Thanks to Geronimo for corrections and Deliberator and Shadow for reviewing the minutes.

HVBS Official Scribe Laureate PC Wiz

February 3, 2006