Interversal Blog - Plesk, MySQL, SQL Server, PHP and all the web technologies in one site

I work with a lot of people starting out with the web.

They’ve got a cool business idea, something that they think the rest of the world should hear about, so they come to me with some dosh and an idea … and that’s where the trouble starts.

The internet is a tricky place. And setting up a bad site can be worse than setting up no site at all.

Sure, there’s heaps of helpful people who can advise how to improve your internet site. Where are these people? On the internet?

Where are all the useful FAQ’s? On the Internet

Where are the useful forums? On the internet

It seems that there’s a catch 22 going on. To learn your way around the internet, you need to know your way around the internet.

I really wish there were some resources I could point people towards that would help them.

1. Learn what’s available on the internet

2. Learn how to use internet resources - forums, blogs, google.
3 Learn how to communicate on the internet - email

4. Help people come up with a ‘realistic’ business plan for their ideas. Also pointing out that ‘just because you build it‘. people won’t necessarily come.

I think the internet/web is getting easier, but there are still so many people who could use a hand. We’ve all been there, trying to learn something new when everyone already there seems to magically know it all.

So, how to help?

I’ve been using Ruby on Rails the last few months, I’m enjoying it. It’s easier than .Net and simpler than php. But there’s one problem, no really good debugger or development environment. Until I found Ruby in Steel.

Ruby in Steel sits in MS Visual Studio, and with a little tweeking, works much like a VB project. There’s even intellisense on the way.

How much does this cost? Well, at the moment, there’s a personal edition that’s free, and later on there will be a developer edition.

I’ll also add that the creators of this product keep their website up to date and answer emails promptly. Something that I’d never expect from microsoft.

So, check out Ruby in Steel

Update:

I have given up on Ruby on Rails. In fact, I’d go close to say I hate Ruby on Rails. But that’s hardly fair. How can you hate something so small and useless.
I spent months getting to terms with it. I found a logorithmic relationship between ease of creation and site complexity. RoR could quicky set up a small site, with getters and setters nicely. And some plug ins could get some other cool stuff running, but anything more than that was hair pulling time.

I gave up, grabbed Ironspeed’s designer for asp.net, and had a running app in a week. Pitty about the 9 months I wasted with RoR. I can use the RoR books to squash flies, cause they weren’t any help squashing any other bug.

Final verdict: Ruby on Rails, no matter how great the IDE is, it’s a new language, with poor documentation, strange setup, and very few turn key features. And ‘A’ for effort, but a ‘F’ for effectiveness.