Your smartphone could replace hotel keys

                          

Got a smartphone? Never lose your hotel key, or even have to stop at the registration desk, again.

That's the vision of a hotel chain that plans to send digital keys to guests' phones via an app instead of making them check in and get the traditional (and famously lose-able) plastic swipe cards. Arriving guests could bypass the front desk and go straight to their rooms.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which owns more than 1,150 hotels in nearly 100 countries, plans to debut the system in the next three months at two of its Aloft hotels -- in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City and Cupertino, California.

Cupertino is likely no accident -- being, of course, the home of Apple's headquarters.

If all goes well, the company says it could have the feature in all of its hotels by next year.

A spokeswoman said the app will initially be compatible with recent iPhone models (4S and newer) and newer Android phones. The app will use Bluetooth technology to unlock the room with a tap.

"We believe this will become the new standard for how people will want to enter a hotel," Frits van Paasschen, Starwood's CEO, told The Wall Street Journal. "It may be a novelty at first, but we think it will become table stakes for managing a hotel."

Starwood, a chain that's heavy on boutique hotels, has a history of tech innovation and employs its own digital team.

Just last year, the company launched a plan to develop solar power at its hotels, offered discounts during a "Cyber Monday" sale and premiered an iPad-specific mobile app. Starwood also announcedInstagram integration on its websites, which lets visitors see images that guests have posted.

Living in the Middle Ages (Photo)

A Russian decided to spend six months living as if in the tenth century AD.



"The idea was to see whether modern man can survive in a medieval environment and see what impact it will have in the way of living his psychological condition," said project leader, Alexey Ovcharenko.



Project entitled "Single in the past" is experiencing 24-year-old Pavel Sapozhnikova.

Until March 22, he will continue to live without tap water, no electricity, no internet and no other conditions that modern life offers. / Telegrafi /

Biennium, master of skateboard

Stone-Kelly Kahlei biennium is done online sensation, since his father began posting videos in which he is seen showing his skills on 'skate board' (skateboard). 

The boy from Victoria in Australia, for the first time riding the 'skateboard' when he was six months old. 

He has already learned the basics of driving and appears frequently in the streets, or in places mended especially for those who drive skateboard. 

The chances are great that Kahlei be the youngest person in the world who runs a skate board

Mandela portrait makes for five minutes (Video)

Painter Aaron Kizer fascinating with its ability to draw.
He is known for the speed of implementation of a portrait, while his last works amazing.

Under the rhythms of music that make his friends, Aaron for less than five minutes has made a portrait of the late Nelson Mandela, former South African president. / Telegrafi /



VIDEO

Judge's laptop ruling challenges the Constitution - and your privacy

It's pretty obvious that we as a society are now made up of two groups. There are those who, for better or worse, have moved their lives into the digital realm, and those who haven't.

I would like to introduce you to someone in the latter category. His name is Edward Korman and he is a federal judge in New York state. He had a case before him involving a U.S. citizen – a Ph.D. student at McGill University in Montreal – who had his computer confiscated while returning to the States. The judge ruled, sweepingly, that, yes, the federal government had a right to confiscate laptops at the border without probable cause.

In other words: You are traveling overseas, with your laptop, tablet or smartphone. As you re-enter the United States, a federal official, for any reason or none, can take it away from you and look through it, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Here's what I have on my laptop. Years of email. Private conversations from close friends about personal matters, some of them tragic, heart-wrenching, and life-changing, and similar messages from my husband. There are thousands of family photos, 99.9 percent of which I would prefer to be private. There is medical information about me and my family. I have business plans that are the culmination of years of work and affect my family's current and future livelihood.

Something else is there as well – something more intimate. What's on my laptop is a reflection of my mind – the unadorned evidence, good and bad, flattering and embarrassing, of my victories and pratfalls, my joys and losses, my most elated moments and deepest thoughts. It's me.

Either you live in a world in which this extension of your very consciousness – and your constant access to it – is an inextricable part of your life, or you don't. You either appreciate that a laptop is a costly and delicate instrument you'd just as soon not be cavalierly tossed around by a TSA employee, or you do not. And you recoil at the thought of strangers pawing through that information on a whim, with trivial legal oversight, or you do not.

The taking of a laptop today is a striking act of confiscation almost without an equivalent 25 years ago. Back then, it would have taken a team of FBI agents days if not weeks to so comprehensively vacuum up a single American's health, business, financial and personal information, not to mention that of so many of his or her friends, family members, and business associates.

Today, Nosy McPatterson, your local TSA staffer, or Roscoe the border agent who got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, can accomplish the same feat, and in an instant. They can paw through your photos and email during their lunch hour. And anyone present with a 13-year-old's understanding of computing can easily and unnoticeably make a quick copy of it onto a device that slips easily into a pants pocket.

Judge Korman says it doesn't happen very often, though there's evidence he's wrong. I don't think it should happen at all.

It was odd – there's surprisingly little talk about the ruling online. (It came down on New Year's Eve afternoon.) The more you read, the weirder the rules are. The so-called "border exemption" extends 100 miles inland from the border. That includes the population of the Eastern Seaboard, Miami, Houston, the west coast, and Chicago.

I wanted to find a smart legal mind who'd considered the issue. I finally found someone who had. He came up with a simple encapsulation to prevent this sort of intrusion into our private lives for no reason. It went like this:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized

That's the Fourth Amendment, of course. The writer was a guy named James Madison, with help from a few friends. Judge Korman, I am quite sure, isn't the sort to carry his life around in his laptop. It's OK that he doesn't. The ironic thing about his ruling is that while initially I thought it encapsulated a division between people who live in the past (the judge) and the future (me and I assume you), but it's obvious this issue was well-debated – and from our point of view, resolved – by some smart people a very long time ago.

In the end, Judge Korman is the one with a different vision for the future. As a professional, mother, friend and citizen, I really don't like the looks of it. 

No. 22 Kansas State comes up short in Ames, loses 81-75 to No. 16 Iowa State

  One of these days, +Kansas State University  coach Bruce Weber might trust his team to push the pace a little more.

Just not now.

The 22nd-ranked Wildcats rushed a few too many shots, had too many breakdowns on defense and lost to No. 16 Iowa State 81-75 on Saturday.

The Wildcats rallied from deficits of 12 and 11 points to tie the score in the second half, but never got the stop or basket they needed to take the lead and allowed a team to top 70 points for only the fourth time this season.

"When we move the basketball and move, we're a pretty good team," Weber said. "But we go 1-on-1 too much. Some of it's youth. Some of it you've got to put on my shoulders. We've got to do a better job of preparing them and making sure they move the basketball and get it to the right people at the right times."

Melvin Ejim scored 20 points to lead Iowa State (15-3, 3-3 Big 12), which regained its shooting touch in breaking a three-game losing streak.

Georges Niang had 18 points and freshman Matt Thomas matched a season high with 14 for the Cyclones, who blew a 12-point halftime lead, rebuilt the lead to 11, then hit another lull as the Wildcats (14-6, 4-3) rallied to tie the score at 66 with 5 minutes left.

Nineteen seconds later, though, Niang hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key after Ejim grabbed an offensive rebound and Iowa State led the rest of the way.

Weber felt the Wildcats too often got away from the controlled game they need to play.

"Just some quick shots, 1-on-1 shots, when we were a little impatient," he said. "We're too young. A year from now, maybe we can play a little quicker. But right now, we're a little young to put up those quick shots."

Still, Kansas State got within three points at the end, but Ejim blocked a potential game-tying 3 from Shane Southwell and hit two free throws to put the Cyclones ahead 79-73 with 23 seconds left.

Marcus Foster scored 20 points for Kansas State, which lost consecutive games for the first time since November.

Kansas State spent much of the afternoon allowing Iowa State to make a run and then matching it. In the end, the Wildcats were just a couple of plays short.

The Wildcats needed less than 7 minutes to erase a 46-34 first-half deficit.

"We've been in that situation before," Kansas State's Will Spradling said. "We were in that situation at (Kansas) and let it go the other way (in an 86-60 loss). We knew we weren't going to come out and let that happen again. Obviously, we didn't finish like we needed to, but we learned from the KU game."

The Wildcats then allowed nine straight points in what appeared to be a game-deciding run for the Cyclones.

But Iowa State's inconsistent defense hurt it again. The Cyclones allowed nine points in 2 minutes, the last in a flurry of three 3-pointers tied it at 66-all,

Niang answered with his 3, and Cyclones star DeAndre Kane shook off a sluggish game with a three-point play off a shot that banked high off the glass to put Iowa State ahead 72-66.

Kane finished with 10 points after shooting 3 of 12 for the second straight game.

This was the first time in the 216 meetings between Iowa State and Kansas State that both were ranked in the AP Top 25. But the Cyclones and Wildcats entered play looking to regain some lost momentum.

Iowa State had opened the season at 14-0, the best start in school history. But losses to Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas had considerably cooled the program's national buzz and sent it tumbling eight spots in this week's poll.

Then last week, a district court judge ruled that reserve guard Bubu Palo be reinstated in a move that angered the administration and dominated local headlines.

Kansas State was coming off a buzzer-beating loss at Texas, as Jonathan Holmes hit a 3 as time expired for a 67-64 Longhorns' win on Tuesday.

Southwell had 14 points for Kansas State and Spradling added 12. But Thomas Gipson, who had scored 20 and 24 points in the two previous games, managed only four on 2-for-7 shooting.

"You've got to give credit to them. They double-teamed him," Weber said. "But I thought he was very impatient. He should have posted deeper."

India wins six more golds in athletics

Panaji: India grabbed six more golds from the athletics arena on the penultimate day of the track and field events, taking their overall tally to 58 medals.

India now have 25 gold, 18 silver and 15 bronze medals in their kitty. Portugal, who are behind them, have collected 25 medals - 11 gold, seven silver and as many bronze.

The gold came from Harshith Shashidhar in high jump and Sachin Patil in 3,000 m steeplechase in men`s competition, while in women`s section Anu Raghavan won in 400 m hurdles, Bhairabi Roy (triple jump), Rengitha Chellah (200 m) and the 4x400 m relay.

With this, India has 15 gold, 14 silver and eight bronze medals from the track and field competition.

Harshith Shashidhar completed an Indian sweep in the high jump by emulating his woman compatriot Tintu.

Shashidhar cleared 2.13 metres and was closely followed by team-mate Shreenith Mohan at 2.11.

Portugal`s Tiago Jose Marques Costa had to settle for a bronze at 2.06 metres.

It was a moment of triumph for Angolan girl Felismina Cavela as she won the 800 m well ahead of India`s Priyanka Patel.

Felismina captured 1,500 m silver medal finish.

The triple jump competition saw Bhairabi Roy fetching India yet another gold with a leap of 12.48 metres.

Team-mate Siva Anbarassi followed with 12.31 m and Portugal`s Vanessa Rocha`s best effort of 12.15 m got her the bronze.

Anu Raghuvan`s women`s 400 metre gold came with a fair amount of ease as she time the run in 1:03.53 minutes, well ahead of Guinea Bissau girl Graciela Martins and Sri Lanka`s Niluka Dushanthe. 

The men`s event, in this category, was dominated by Mozambique runners Kurt Couto and Creve Machava who finished first and second respectively, while Lankan Nandana was third.

Mozambique`s Alberto Mamba was the cynosure of all eyes as he clinched his second gold of the games by winning the 800 m to add to his 1500 m title won on the opening day.

Mamba, who earlier said there was little competition for him here, timed his run in 1:53.96 minutes to cross the finish line ahead of India`s Lalit Mathur (1:54.36) and Cape Verde`s Mauricio Alves (1:55.74).

The men`s 200 m was an intense battle between Holder da Silva of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde`s Danielsan Martins who had won a silver in the 100 m on the opening day.

Ultimately it was Holder, who held off the Cape Verde runner to make up for his 100 m failure, where he couldn`t qualify for the finals.

Kirandeep Kaur provided India gold in 200 m, winning it in 25 secs flat.

Sachin Patil gave another gold by winning the 3000 m steeplechase.

India`s Naresh Maloth took the silver ahead of Portugal`s Jose Nuno Rodrigues.

The 4 x 400 m relay for men was won by the Sri Lankan quartet, with Cape Verde finishing second and India third.

The Indian women`s foursome, however, emerged winner to give the country its sixth gold of the day from athletics.

PTI