Fixing Rails - Ajax charset issues

If you are developing a Rails applications with Ajax for an other language than the english, and you need to use the special characters like ä, ö, ü, you may have the unpleasant surprise to experience getting unreadable characters on your HTML page.
This problem is a little pain in the ass, as it took me a couple of hours to get more understanding of it. The problem was not that their aren't many posts talking about the problem and offering many solutions, but none worked for me. I found useful this post, and this one. Go through these posts if you still don't know what the problem is about.

The solution that worked for me:

before_filter :set_charset
def set_charset
  str_type = request.xhr? ? 'javascript' : 'html'
  headers['Content-Type'] = "text/#{str_type}; charset=ISO-8859-1"
end

Memo Game

I have found the Android developer challenge a really great competition to participate in, all the more the Android platform is going to get real in the near future. In my opinion, the mobile users, as well as mobile sphere have the most to win, from the appearance and rapid spread of the Android platform.

The application I have created is a memory game. It is an exciting board game, to be played for fun at all times. It even makes you think.


The application, through a user friendly interface, offers the users the chance to play the well-known Memory game now on the Android platform.

Currently under the tiles hide images. The user is able to select a theme from the following: car brands, Disney-figures, fruits and flowers.

After the application is started, the game is on. The user needs to click on the tiles appeared on the screen and try to find a pair of matching tiles. If identical images are discovered under two different tiles - a matching pair was discovered. The game continues until all the tiles with identical images are found or the user leaves the game.

The project is hosted by: Code Google under memogame. From there it is available for download for free.

One great challenge for all

Android Developers Blog: Android Developers Have Risen to the Challenge

As many as 1788 applications were submitted for the Android platform. This shows a great enthusiasm from developers side, as well as eager to take part in challenges: building new applications, implementing new ideas and compete with each other. One great characteristic which makes things happen, and fast.

Android - the real developer challenge