I’ve seen a lot of help requests about a specific controller error that many people encounter in Rails after sending a post request from a form they’ve custom built. The ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken error is Rails basically telling you that it’s not going to fall victim to a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attack. Here’s a simplified explanation of why this occurs and how to fix the error to keep your application secure and fix the problem.

I recently stumbled on Google’s new charting API. This is a great tool that will make creating charts and graphs much easier than some alternatives. I’ve seen some cases where you have to use extremely complex programming techniques server-side to create such charts; not so with Google.

It’s pretty simple to use: give Google a specific set of URL-encoded parameters, and it spits a PNG chart image back at you. I created a simple pie graph to display browser usage using it.

You have a new, spam-free e-mail address and you want to keep it pure and pristine forever. Here are a few tips on how to do just that.

Maybe, instead of users going to http://yoursite/controller/view/1337, you want users to go to http://yoursite/controller/1337. In other words, you want to map the view controller to pull up by default. Here’s how to do it in Rails 2.0.2.

You’ve probably heard me use the term “screen resolution” before. It’s huge when we’re talking about anything visual in computers, whether it be software, web design, or pretty-much anything else. Most developers know exactly what I mean, but the common individual doesn’t understand why they “have to scroll” to see some content. It all has to do with screen resolution, which I’m about to demystify.

Adobe Kuler is a great tool for choosing color palettes for your identity and/or projects. I just stumbled onto this tonight, and am already loving it. Simply browsing the combinations other users and artists have created is a great exercise to find some inspiration for your next design. Highly recommended!

It’s about time! The AP is reporting that a Florida man is suing Network Solutions and ICANN over cybersquatting domain names, and in fact, they’re seeking class-action lawsuit status.

Creating your own custom rake task is pretty easy. For example, maybe you’d like to write your own rake task to do some database management. Here is the basic structure on how to accomplish that.

This is a collection of data and procedures that I’ve tested and researched over the past month to get a fully functional, load-balanced Mongrel cluster configuration running behind Apache and Pound, without breaking Plesk.

As of February 1, 2008, AOL will no longer supply any support, or release any updates for its Netscape browser. Now in version 9, the long-standing product will essentially die in two weeks.