BrianBal.com

OpenID is a simple user authentication system that uses a URL as your identity. Acts as Authenticated is a great plug-in for Ruby on Rails that handles user registration and login. This is a great tutorial that shows you how to integrate the two.

http://www.bencurtis.com/archives/2007/03/rails-openid-and-acts-as-authenticated/

In honor of Father’s Day here are some links for Dad.

• Learn How to Tie a Tie
• ESPN
• Grilling Tips

Apple looks to increase the market share of the Safari web browser by offering it to Windows users. If enough people make the switch to Safari maybe more sites will launch with JavaScript support for Safari. Having more compatibility is a good thing for everyone.

You can download the new Safari at http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

At a Webstandards Group meetup in London Chris Heilmann gave a rather funny and informative presentation on code bloat. You can check out the slides from his presentation as HTML, PDF, or a Podcast at http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=441. Here is a quick run down of his seven reasons.

1. Wrong perception of time needed to accustom ourselves to a project
2. Maintenance without using the right tools
3. Bad or non-existent documentation
4. People do not read or look before they start
5. Lack of awareness
6. Failure to specialize
7. Lack of a front-end build process

This article by Mark Boulton has some good tips for increasing the legibility of website designs.

Styling form controls is a frustrating experience because you cannot get consistent results across different browsers. In Eric Meyer’s blog post Formal Weirdness he explains why form controls are impossible to describe with current CSS.

iTunes 7.2 is available for download and offers support for “iTunes Plus”, the new DRM free tracks sell for $1.29. I am glad to see that at least one of the major label record companies is catching on to the idea that DRM makes using their product difficult.