has_many :through limitations

acts_as_state_machine is a great plugin really useful when you want to add constraints and behavior to your model objects.
Note : Those who don’t know what this plugin is all about should stop reading right there or risk being completely lost.
One thing that seems impossible to do with the plugin is to have variable “initial states” [...]

I used to be a fan of the has_finder gem written by Nick Kallen.
Now with Rails 2.1, this functionnality is built-in so you don’t need to install the gem.
The named_scope method allows you to add finders to any model. A code snippet is worth 10000 words :

class Story < ActiveRecord::Base

  named_scope :hilarious, :conditions => ["type [...]