Today, I had the need to replicate an encrypted query string token to inter-operate with a third-party commercial application. I was able to determine the library, symmetrical algorithm and secret key being used to create the token. Turns out, it was an ASP.net web application using the Chilkat .NET library to do the encryption and decryption. Specifically, it was the Chilkat AES (aka Rijndael) methods being used.
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Links

If you are serving dynamic binary content via your ASP.net web application with rudimentary code (eg. simple HttpContext.BinaryWrite) you may find that when utilizing audio or video Chrome does not allow fast forwarding/seeking ahead. This is because Chrome relies strictly on the ability to request byte ranges to supply this functionality. This is done with the Accept-Range HTTP response header.
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Working with SSL certificates in Openfire are surprisingly troublesome, at least as compared to popular web servers (Apache hTTPd, Nginx, IIS).

I recently needed to update an expiring certificate (having once, previously, figured out how to successfully import a purchased, SSL certificate.

This time I found a nice tutorial: https://alpha-labs.net/2014/12/openfire-and-ciphers/. Thanks to Christian for that.

I’ve made some slight modifications to his Shell script, and I just wanted to share:
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Arthur Pemberton – Web Applications Developer

I am a seasoned web applications developer with over seven years of professional experience designing, developing, and deploying end-to-end solutions; and over ten years administering websites. My years of professional and freelance work have allowed me to hone my skills in several areas, ranging from casual computer support, to software architecture, and management of teams of skilled web designers and developers.

Currently based in the Tampa Bay Florida area, I work full-time as an IT manager and lead developer. I also freelance, accepting web projects from small to medium size clients, developing and maintaining WordPress based websites or building custom web apps. My service also extends to Caribbean nation of Dominica, where I work with local partners there to provide scalable solutions.

You can read through my biography for more information, or find my my resume.

Web Application Development

Custom web application development in Python/Django is available to clients, regardless of location. Requirements and specifications are gathered, and quotes are developed based the client provided information and timelines. Testing environments are setup to allow the client to regularly view and monitor progress. Upon completion, the finished applications can either be hosted on my own server resources, or deployed to client owned resources. Read more …

Website Creation and Administration

For companies and individuals looking to expand their web presence, website solutions are offered built on the WordPress platform. Solutions range from simple information websites, to full e-commerce solutions with online marketing budgets. Websites are taken from inception through design to population of supplied content and imagery, and finally publication on the world wide web. Websites can be self-hosted or kept on my own server resources. Costs of websites vary significantly based on complexity of design, number of pages and imagery, and required feature-set. However the typical website cost starts at $500 USD.

Resume

Summary

Full-stack web application developer versed in developing for both GNU/Linux (Python/Django) and Microsoft Windows (ASP.net WinForms);
with website building experience using PHP 5.

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Biography

Arthur Pemberton is the Manager of Information Technology and Lead Developer at Mediagistic, Inc. where he manages a team of web developers, IT personnel and third-party vendors. Mr. Pemberton held positions with Henderson Engineers, Inc., and the University of Missouri Kansas City. Arthur holds a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science, and a Masters of Science in Computer Science, along with minors in Physics and Mathematics; all from the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC). During that time, he served as president of the student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), participated in the IEEE Robotics competitions, and was also inducted into the international honour society for computing and information disciplines, Upsilon Pi Epsilon

Background

Arthur was born and raised in the island nation of Dominica, nestled in the centre of the Caribbean archipelago. At an early age he gained access to an IBM compatible Apple computer, complete with two 5 1/4-inch floppy disk drives. Years later, and countless hours of computer repair, Turbo Pascal and Delphi programming, and website design, along with a stint as a high school teacher; Arthur moved to the United States to start his formal education in computing.

Interests

One of Arthur’s most enduring interests has been in the Free Software movement, and Open-Source development model. His journey began with Red Hat 7.0 when he needed to provide filtered internet access to a computer lab through a web proxy, and worked with his then classmate, Trevor Christian, to turn an unused desktop into a full gateway, router, and web filter powered by open source. Since then Arthur has participated in various open source communities to varying degrees.

Partners and Colleagues

Adrien Nicholas — Enterprise Java developer based in the Greater New York area, but born in Dominica.

Patrick Alexander — Software Developer.

Yuri Jones — Market Research Analyst at National Bank of Dominica.

Contact Me

The best way to contact me is via e-mail at pembo13 at gmail dot com.

I have a Django project where I was utilizing bulk_create to load a fairly large dataset, and this was some times resulting in the error MySQL server has gone away. Reading though the documentation on this error, https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/gone-away.html I see that one of the possible causes for this is “you send a query to the server that is incorrect or too large” Turns out, I just needed to use the batch_size parameter of bulk_create. The  success of a website depends on web design, this is why is very important to look for the help the experts from Best Website Hosting. 

In my case, a batch of 56,000 records was triggering the error, so for safety, I switched to using bulk_created(..., batch_size=(10**4)).