使用ruby的一些疑问

1.我在用ror连mysql的时候，不知道如何选择字符集，utf8,latin1,gbk等都试过了，增加的中文内容从数据库取出来也能用中文正常显示，不过用mysql front打开时，看到的数据全是问号，这是怎么一回事啊？
2.在用ror连oracle的时候，老是说oci.dll找不到，我把oracle的bin目录添到环境变量里面还是如此，然后我就把oci.dll放到system32的目录里面，找不到的提示不会弹了，但是会出现以下报错：

c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/oci8.rb:49:in `create': ERROR (OCIError)
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/oci8.rb:49
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `require'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:147:in `require'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/kernel/requires.rb:7:in `require_library_or_gem'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/kernel/reporting.rb:11:in `silence_warnings'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/kernel/requires.rb:5:in `require_library_or_gem'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.14.4/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/oracle_adapter.rb:29
... 16 levels...
from ./Script/../config/boot.rb:28
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require'
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `require'
from Script/server:4

还请对ror有经验的开发者帮忙解答一下，谢谢！