Akbar on Development
Attaining the Impossibles
  • All Projects
  • Jack Sparrow Compass
  • Subtitles Translator
  • USB Disk Manager
  • Swift MVC Framework
  • TaskbarExt
  • Quick Chess
  • Basecamp Extension
  • Language Tools
  • Rapid Downloader
SAML 2.0

Recently, one of my clients decided to support the SAML 2.0 for SSO to their website. Since, the plan was to just support it as Service Provider, it was decided to use a custom implementation in C# as the overall concept and idea is of SAML sounds very simple. In the end, even though we were able to make the service work and running in less than 2 days for internal demo, we ran into many integration problem when working with Identity Providers of client using the different SAML 2.0 implementation on various platforms. We run into problems like:

– Some clients were using Deflated XML while others were not
– Encryption Algorithms Choice per client
– Difference in the NameID format being used
– Difference in how SAML attributes were being communicated/passed

Location Tracking

Jack Sparrow Compass Android App provides a simple and yet powerful interface to save any Geolocation, and then at any time get direction and distance to that saved Geolocation from your current location. This is good enough for most of Jack Sparrow fans, but the beauty of the legendary compass was that it can point to any thing you want at any time, and that thing can be moving as well. For example, if it was pointing to Dead Man’s Chest, it will keep point correctly to it no matter if it’s on land, carriage or on a ship.

Based on these lines, this new Jack Sparrow version brings this magical property to your beloved compass as well, and now it can not only point to a static geo-locations, but can also point accurately to any moving object or person. So, for example, if you want to track where your friend or family member is at this time, or where is your car at the exact current moment, using this app, you can get target mobile object exact location, distance and direction from your current position…

Jack Sparrow Compass

I’m happy to announce that Jack Sparrow Compass version 2.0 is now available for the public downloads on Google Play store. This is a major build with many of the exciting and long awaited features. In case you are wondering, yes, you can now import locations from Google map. Plus many any other exciting features and improvements have been added in this new version. This version contains such a revolutionary features and restructuring that I can safely say this in the Apple style that:

The only thing that’s changed is everything.

Or if I say this in my own wording, then “The only thing that’s not changed is Jack Sparrow Compass legendary dial.” If you don’t believe me just look at the following screenshots of the new App…

SQL Server TLS 1.0 Fix

Few days ago, I have to disable TLS 1.0 on one of our Windows 2012 Server for PCI Compliance. This machine was also acting as Database server, and runs MS SQL Server 2012. After disabling the TLS 1.0 (using IISCrypto tool), I ran into SQL Server compatibility issues where first the SQL Server Service wouldn’t start, and once that issue was fixed, SQL Server Management Studio failed to connect with that SQL Server. Thanks to the RobWillis.info post, I was able to solve both of these issues.

Swift MVC Framework

Swift, PHP MVC Framework, is the one I created for the development of my website. If you are thinking why another framework, then I will not blame you for asking this question. I myself asked this question several time before starting work on this one, and the reason I ended up developing this was because I wanted a very lightweight and fully controllable yet scalable framework for small web applications development.

Actually, all this began with my idea to create my famous Dynamic Subtitles Translator. Since, my website was hosted on a provider which supported PHP, so I started looking for some simple PHP frameworks. After doing some research, I decided to go with CodeIgniter, and overall I was happy with my choice. It was small, very well documented, and I was able to make the online subtitles translator on 2-3 weekends. All was going well until I run into few complains by user that some SRT files were being rejected by the server. So, I started going through the CodeIgniter libraries to debug the issue. It was then I realize that even this small looking framework is very complex, and even though I was able to fix the problem after few hours of debugging and research, at that time I thought that I would write a dead simple framework for my website…