When using Rails + MySQL, you'll find that normal string (or varchar(255)) fields are case insensitive. This can be quite a nuisance, but it's easy to resolve. You need to set your table to the utf8_bin collation. By using the binary variant, you're basically enabling case sensitivity.
That's all. The <code>title</code> field is now case sensitive.
Another question I get a lot is how to change the collation and charset for an existing column. That's easy with the following query. Just make sure to pick the right column and data type: