DCCA-7 Travel Information
Seventh IFIP International Working Conference on
Dependable Computing for Critical Applications
Can we rely on computers?
January 6-8, 1999
San Jose, California, USA
- Organized by
- IFIP Working Group 10.4
on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance
- In cooperation with
- The Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
IFIP Technical Committee 11 on Security and Protection in
Information Processing Systems
IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Fault-Tolerant
Computing
EWICS Technical Committee 7 on Systems Reliability, Safety and
Security
Conference Hotel
The conference will be held at the
Fairmont Hotel in San
Jose, California. The hotel is located at
170 South Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113, USA
Tel. +1 (408)998-1900
It's a couple of blocks from the San Jose Convention Center
(which is at 150 West San Carlos Street).
Here are Yahoo! maps of the
immediate
area, the
city,
and the
region
You can also download high resolution PDF maps.
The region is the (San Francisco) Bay Area; the area around San
Jose is often called the South Bay. Silicon Valley is the area from
San Jose up the peninsula as far as about Redwood City.
San Francisco is always referred to as "The City" (never--let me
repeat that--never as 'Frisco).
Getting to the Hotel
From San Jose Airport
The hotel is a few miles south of San Jose airport (code
SJC).
Taxi
A taxi will cost about $15 (you usually tip taxi drivers 10-15%
in the US). It may help your driver to know that the Fairmont is
close to the San Jose Convention Center (the Fairmont is a huge hotel,
but US taxi drivers are often recent arrivals who do not know the
local geography and have a less than perfect grasp of English).
Light Rail
There's a light rail (tram) service that stops at both the
airport and the Convention Center (stops 22 and 12, respectively, on this
map). Buy a ticket
from the vending machine before boarding (about $2). Runs every 10
to 15 minutes.
Van Service
Alternatively, you can use one of the scheduled van services. The
South Bay Flyer (888-463-5937) stops at the Fairmont
Pickup is every 30 minutes, curbside. (Follow signs to "shuttle services").
Fare is $6.00 one way, $10.00 round trip. No reservations. No credit cards.
Other transportation services can be found by exploring the airport
site above.
From San Francisco Airport
It's about 40 miles to the hotel from
San Francisco
airport (code SFO). A taxi will cost about $100, so you'll
probably want to use a rental car or a van service.
Rental Car
If you rent a car, take
Highway 101 south for about 30 miles (this will take between 30
minutes and an hour or more depending on the time of day and whether
or not you
can use the carpool lane [restricted to cars with more than one occupant]).
Exit at Guadalupe Parkway (Hwy. 87) and continue down
Guadalupe three miles to the Park Avenue Exit. Make a left on Park Avenue
and continue down two blocks. Make a right turn on Almaden Blvd. The next
light will be San Carlos Street. Turn left. Continue down one block
to Market Street. Make a left on Market Street. The hotel will be one block
up on the right hand side, at 170 South Market Street.
Bus/Van Service
The South Bay Flyer (888-463-5937) stops at the Fairmont.
They also provide the United Airlines service between SFO and SJC.
- TIMES: Pickup every hour from 6:50am (at South Terminal) to
9:50pm. It stops at each terminal (South, International, and North).
Reckon about 10 minutes for each stop. Journey time from SFO to SJC is
about 45 minutes. Add 20 minutes to downtown San Jose. It is
recommended that passengers be at the pickup point 10 minutes in
advance.
- PLACE: Upper (i.e., departures) level, center island, between blue pillars. From inside
the terminal, follow signs to "shuttle services".
- VAN: Look for a white van, with blue sign that says "South Bay Flyer"
and "United Airlines." Check with driver before boarding that he is
going to San Jose, as there are many shuttle services. Ask to be taken
to the Fairmont Hotel.
- FARE: SFO to San Jose one way = $17.00, Round trip = $30.00. Cash or
traveler's checks only. No credit cards.
- RESERVATIONS: No reservations
Public Transportation
There's a free shuttlebus to the Milbrae Caltrain station, from which you
can
take the train to San Jose, then pick up another shuttlebus to
the San Jose Convention Center, which is a couple of blocks from the hotel.
Getting to the Bay Area
You can fly nonstop to SFO from almost any major city in the world,
whereas SJC usually requires changing planes in a hub or gateway city
such as Chicago, Seattle, or LA.
(Beware, there are several flights billed as "direct" to SJC, but this
may just mean the flight number is continuous; unless the flight
is "nonstop" you'll still make a stop, and often change planes, at
a hub.)
If you can take a nonstop to SJC, or if you have to go via a hub anyway, then
SJC is much more convenient than SFO; otherwise, a nonstop to SFO
is likely to be faster overall.
Note that some United flights to SJC actually go to SFO, then use a
bus to SJC (this is obvious if you actually read the routing).
There are several good sites for exploring
routings and fares. I find www.itn.com pretty
good (this is the same engine used by United Airlines).
If you don't want to have to register, use www.travelweb.com to reach the same
site.
Food
www.restauantrow.com
lists 63 restaurants within a mile of the Fairmont (type in the zip code 95113).
Many are pizza joints (but what's labeled as "fast food" is often a decent
ordinary restaurant, not a burger place).
If anyone provides recommendations, I'll add them here.
I've heard good things of Scotts, and the White Lotus (vegetarian Vietnamese).
Weather
Bring a jacket and umbrella or raincoat, and a light sweater. The
daytime temperatures will be in the 60s (18C) and it may drop to the
40s (single digits Celsius) at night. The usual pattern is rainstorms
of several days duration followed by a week of sunshine. Here's the current weather
forecast. The forecasts are completely accurate (you just need a
satellite photo of the Pacific to see what's going to happen for the
next few days).
Sightseeing
San Jose has a pretty good
web site for visitors.
Recommended and close to the conference location are:
Much touted, but of little interest, in my opinion
is the Winchester Mystery House.
A bit further away (30 minutes or so by car)
See also the Bay Area
visitor's guide for dozens of other suggestions.
For a day trip, consider
- San Francisco (you may be able to take the train--see the schedule). You'll need
to take a shuttle at each end since neither station is downtown.
- The Central Coast, including
Monterey with its historical area
and aquarium. The aquarium is justly
famous (though there's also an excellent one in San Francisco)
and located in Cannery Row (of Steinbeck fame), which is a tourist
trap. The historical area is also touristy (cafes, organ grinder with
monkey etc.) but very pleasant and quite interesting.
- Carmel Mission
(can be combined with Monterey). A very beautiful
mission from the period when California was part of Mexico; it was Junipero
Serra's headquarters.
- San Juan Bautista.
Another mission (right on the San Andreas
fault, so it's fallen down a few times) in a historical park
(the railroad bypassed the town, so it's frozen as it was at the end
of the last century).
Not recommended are the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (tacky seaside joint,
mostly closed in winter), and 17 mile drive (pay $$ to drive through a
wealthy neighborhood with occasional views of private beaches and
golf courses; go to
Point Lobos instead)
If you want to take a longer sightseeing trip (several days) consider
Lake Tahoe (also good for skiing), Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Death
Valley, or the coast highway down to LA. Here's the official California Guidebook
Back to DCCA-7 Call for Participation
Last changed 9 November 1998 by John Rushby: Rushby@csl.sri.com