Rails Authentication

So as I'm working on a couple Rails apps, I'm worried about the best way to authenticate. I had originally done some things with rails authentication and authorization using a rails engine. I pretty much got it to work, but it seemed a bit kludgey. Part of this, I'm sure, is not quite grokking out how the engine was wired in to my app. Chalk it up to a state of perpetual newbie-ness.

So perhaps my feeling about engines is not totally unfounded. I'm not jumping into the whole debate, but there seems to be a split in the Rails community about engines, enough to look for alternatives. Anyhow, I asked a few more experienced rails programmers, and like a chorus they all told me to forget about engines and go with Acts as Authenticated. That's on my plate, I'm going to try this plug in as part of this SlIcer mash-up.

Additionally, I came across this nice review of Rails authorization tools...a good read.