The way I use the information is to get an idea of the price range in my area. This gives me an idea of what to look for. For instance, today it showed the price of regular gas between $2.75 and $2.91. So when I saw $2.73 on a Mobile gas station near my work place, I filled the gas tank. The key is not to wait until the last minute. Start looking when you still have 1/4 gas left.

One thing to note about the gas prices is that people typically only update the price of regular gas. Plus, premium and diesel prices are typically not updated.

The application allows to submit the gas price of a station easily. All you have to do is enter the brand name, address, city, state and price.

‘AroundMe’ is the most popular iPhone application among my friends. It is free. I love it. It figures out your location based on the iPhone’s GPS (I have iPhone 3GS). You can then search for points of interest near you by either clicking one of the categories or entering a keyword. I searched for FedEx and found one within walking distance. I tested several categories and found the database to be fairly accurate. However, searching for keyword ‘halal’ did not show the local halal market and resturant. Both have the word ‘halal’ in it. Oh well.

The second iPhone application I installed was ‘iSalat’ which I purchased for $0.99.  As the name suggests, it displays the salat timings based on the location. The timings were fairly close to my local masjid. The application calculates the timing based on location and preference of either Hanafi, Shafi’i, ISNA or Umm Al-Qurra.  The application also features a qibla locator.

I also installed Pandora a couple of days ago. I didn’t get a chance to play with it. Everything I have heard is positive.

Pakistan Zindabad

Quaid’s Speech in Lahore
Dil Dil Pakistan – Vital Signs
Human Development Fundation
Pakistaniat

The product is bit dated – it was release in February 2006. I got an error message when I tried to install it on a 64-bit Vista machine. I installed it on a Windows 7 RC and was able to convert real media files in mp3 format.

The sotware is very easy to use. Default settings would work for most people. The size of the mp3 file was not an issue for me, so I chose a variable bit rate. I was able to convert a 30MB rm file to a 80MB mp3. My guess is that the size tripled because of the variable bitrate setting and the fact that *. rm files were not optimized to begin with. The software speed was remarkable as it converted 30 mb files on an average of 10 mintues.

1. Single Dictionary words make a very weak password. Choose at least three word phrase.

2. Changing the letter case of just first or last letter is not good enough. Change the letter case of letters other than first or last letter.

3. Adding a number just to the beginning or end of the password to make it alphanumeric is also not good enough.

There is no perfect way to choose a good password. If you can create a unique account for each of your accounts and remember the login information, do so. For most people, creating a unique login account everytime is impractical. You just cant remember that many passwords. Is writing down passwords a good idea? It depends. How secure is the place you are storing your password in? One solution is to categorize
accounts and use same password for different categories such as work-important, work, home-important and home. The problem is that if one of your passwords is compromised, your other passwords in that category are also compromised. This maybe an acceptable risk.

As I said earlier, there is not perfect solution. What you can do is take all factors into account and create your own strategy.

That said, the movie has a bit more romance than I care about. While it didn’t bother me much, it may disappoint some of the hardcore Potter fans who like to see magic and adventure. Oh well, Harry is a grown up boy now. I would say that as a whole, it is still an adventure movie.

You have to have seen previous movies or read the books to grasp the plot. Definitely watch previous movies before watching Half Blood Prince. If you really want to know about the story without watching previous movies, then go to Wikipedia and search for Harry Potter. Just make sure that you don’t read the article on Half Blood Prince book.

Now that I have seen the movie, I will read the book. I know it sounds backwards but it helps me visualize

1.  A street address: A street address makes a perfet password as long as is not directly related to you. Your home or office address would be make poor passwords. Address of a friend’s home, library or your favorite coffee shop can all make good passwords.

13BowmanDr and 3505thAve (Empire State Building) are examples of two address turned into passwords.

2. Rhymes or song lyrics: Pick a sentence from a rhyme or a song. Pick a year or a month. This could be when the song was released or when you first heard it. Combine the first letter of each word and the year or month you chose.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - ttlS2009
 
Pocket Full Of Sun Shine – Pfoss2008

3. If you are a good typist, then pick a phrase. A quote you like or an idiom would make good password.

 ’Knock on Wood’ has three words. So the password becomes ‘3KnockonWood‘.