I'm spending this week at O'Reilly's Emerging Technologies conference in Santa Clara, so it isn't 5.30am local time ... though it is for me, since I've spent all day on a plane. The good news is that the Westin Santa Clara has broadband to the room for $11.95 a day and Paramount's Great America® theme park and 72-par championship golf course are "right across the street" (though I don't expect I'll make that). The bad news is that the phone charges are even worse than Marriott's (which may have gone up since I last stayed in one). According to the Westin price list, if I dial my own international call, the hotel adds a surcharge of $4.50 (it must have bought an expensive switchboard) then charges me 110% of the operator-assisted day rate for the duration of the call. I think I'll send my wife an e-mail rather than spend £25 telling her I've arrived. It's a compelling argument for the use of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).