You don’t have to write a lot of code to get tagging support in your Ruby on Rails application - you just have to install a plugin. This is how you install the ‘acts_as_taggable’ plugin…

First go to the Ruby on Rails application folder and open a terminal at that location. Now run this commad…

ruby script/plugin install acts_as_taggable

If your have previously installed some plugins from the same repository, that command will work. If not, you will get this error…

Plugin not found: ["acts_as_taggable"]

This is because the ‘acts_as_taggable’ plugin is not in any of the repositories you check. To see the all the repositories on your check list, run this command…

ruby script/plugin list #Shows the list of all the repositories you check.

To add new repositories to your list, you have to run this command…

ruby script/plugin discover

This will shows a list of repositories - just press ‘y’ to select all the repositories you need. I added every repository in the list.

Now run the first command again…

ruby script/plugin install acts_as_taggable

Installing the Gem

The above instructions are for installing the acts_as_taggable plugin - not the acts_as_taggable gem. To install the gem run the command…

gem install acts_as_taggable

Related Links

• Acts As Taggable Plugin Howto
• The Complete Guide to Rails Plugins

I am looking at some spam I received at LinDesk. These are not your average spam - they are real good. I even let one through before I understood they were spam.

• spartan300 | tcssey@aol.com | dolcemp3.com | IP: 64.12.116.138
  Hhmmm,, this sounds good. but I not yet into upgrading my Fedora7 to 8. i’m not that afraid of changes, but I might incur another error with my linux. I still have lot of work to do, maybe i’ll try this later next week. Thanks though for this blog.
  In article Sound Issue in Fedora 8
• 2cool2sexy | tcssey@aol.com | dolcemp3.com | IP: 64.12.116.138
  Have you checked on its system requirements? You should try checking of their site. http://banshee-project.org/
  I believe there are helpdesk there that can support you.
  In article Banshee - Music Management and Playback for GNOME
• audio-fanatic | tcssey@aol.com | dolcemp3.com | IP: 64.12.116.138
  another nice review here Lin. You really adore using Linux-based software? I think this mp3 software is the one fit for my notebook.
  In article Audacious Media Player

First of all, do you agree with me? Are these spam?

The reason why I think they are spam are the following…

• Same URL and Email - but different names.
• Zero content comments - they add no value to the post.
• My previous experience has taught me that comments with @aol.com email addresses are often spam.
• This guy has only commented on MP3 related posts - his URL leads to an MP3 site.

The reason why they may not be spam are just as valid.

• These comments are written by humans - not bots.
• The writer of the second comment(about banshee) has obviously read the post.
• The commenter has at least a passing knowledge of Linux and Linux softwares.

So, have you received any spam like this - comments that you are unsure about? These three comments are still in my moderation queue. I need advice on how to deal with them.

I could let them through - if no one looks closely, they will think these are actual comments. That will give the articles an appearance of popularity. It is a good thing for me. But I have a zero tolerance policy towards spam. If the comment is a spam, I will not allow it on my site. Its a matter of principle.

Desktop and Web application needs icons. Icons make the app more usable than an all-text application. If you are building a desktop application, your framework may provide some stock icons. But if you are making a web application, you will need external icons.

I have seen a lot of pages that lists many icon sets…

• Icons For Your Desktop and Icons For Your Web Designs
• Quality mini icons
• 90 Free Vector Icons Set
• The Top 50 Sources for Free Designer Icons
• Top 50 Supercool Free Icon Sets
• Symbols, Buttons and Icons For Free
• More Symbols, Buttons and Icons For Free
• Free Tiny Small Mini Icons Bullets
• Icon Finder - a search engine for icons

But when I want some icons I have a better place to look.

KDE and Gnome Icon themes.

I prefer using these icons because of the following reasons…

Multiple Size Icons

Most themes provide the same icon in various sizes. The available sizes are 128×128, 64×64, 48×48, 32×32, 24×24, 22×22, 16×16 and sometimes even a scalable SVG set. Not all themes have all the sizes - but most have. I don’t have to tell you how useful this is.

Lots of Choice

KDE Look Icons page have 86 pages with 15 icon themes per page. That makes a total of 1290 icon sets. And I am not counting the Gnome Look Icons.

That’s a lot of choice. Granted, not all will be good. Not all will have the icon I am searching for. Not all have the size I way want. There will be some duplication. But its still a lot.

Free - in both sense of the word

Most of these icons uses GPL and LGPL licenses. So you can use if for your application without paying for them. You can modify them. You can share it with others. You can… you get the idea. The point is there are no restrictions.

Even if you are building a proprietary application, I think you can use the icons because you are not compiling it into the application. But I am not sure about that - if anyone reading this knows, please leave a comment.

I have to warn you that not all icons sets use these licenses - so make sure you look at the license of an icon set before using it.

Great Icons

Most of the icons are created by professional designers. Sure there are some duds among the collection - but the majority of them are good.

Some Recommended Icon Sets

Crystal Project

Nuvola

Crystal Diamond

black + white icons

Crystal Clear

And there are hundreds more for you to find out…