title: "Touch" updated_at column in Rails 2.3.2
body: <p>I have a process which iterates through a bunch of ActiveRecord models, does some processing, and saves the models again. Often though, the processing doesn't result in an changes to the attributes and so the <code>updated_at</code> column never changes (even though save is called).</p>
  
  <p>I'd prefer not to disable partial updates (in general, they're useful). I'm guessing that my two options are to:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Add a separate timestamp column to the model (i.e., '<code>processed_at</code>') and manage this myself, although this seems a bit wasteful/redundant.</li>
  <li>Or somehow override the management of the <code>updated_at</code> attribute?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I've heard that Rails 3 will have a 'touch' method which would be exactly what I'm looking for.</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas/options/opinions?</p>