[rmk]

No, not if you want to bump into hackers or throw yourself into the startup scene. To do that, you should choose Palo Alto / Mountain View. If you have cash to spare, work at Hacker Dojo, but live in an inexpensive area (see above). You can commute using light rail to Mountain View downtown, and take a short walk to Hacker Dojo from there. Castro St. (downtown Mountain View) has great food options.

Palo Alto is more expensive --- forget about living there! Also, fewer spots where you can camp out. There is a Starbucks and a great cafe called Coupa Cafe, but both places are now too noisy and not ideal to get any work done.

[jmau5]

Unfortunately I doubt I'll have that much money to spare on a monthly basis. Unless I can come up with a solid job, I don't think I'd be able to do it.

Mountain View sounds like a decent place and there was a post on the front page last night that said it's one of the cheaper places to live and a car isn't necessary, so that's good. Also, there's Foothill college that's a half hour bike ride away from the center of Mountain View.