and on the hotspot thing in nyc, there are a bunch on nycwireless.net's nodedb, you just have to find them, and there are might not be any conviniently located that open late.
The optimal place would be like paris on the platte in downtown denver, opens very late, totally free, lots of folks pecking away and dirt cheap coffee and food. I am so sorry for any time that i didn't appreciate paris. So a bit more hunting and i should find some interesting location that is not bryant park