[sahueso]

I'm very impressed that that's your first app. I started programming my first serious web site recently, before this I just made small sites to learn how to use CSS,PHP, Javascript and MySql, however I doubt that whatever I make will come looking as good as that. What did you use? From what or where did you learn? Another thing, could you please recommend me a book that covers everything in general about making a site? From programming it to handling issues like balancing the load between servers, etc. Thanks a lot.

[bearwithclaws]

For CSS, I learned most from 'CSS Mastery'; For Ruby on Rails, I'd recommend 'Simply Rails 2'.

I don't think there's any book that covers everything. Server/hosting wise, I leave everything to Heroku.

[techiferous]

"Server/hosting wise, I leave everything to Heroku."

Heroku is great in that it commoditizes the hosting. It's nice for a first side project but if you're planning on doing multiple side projects I would recommend Linode.com (or some other VPS). For just $20/month you can host as many apps as you want (which is a lot if your side projects don't get much traffic). For Heroku, it's $36 per month per app, isn't it? I have a side project on their free version but it seems that if it gets two web requests at the same time it's too much traffic and an error page is displayed for the user.

Using a VPS like Linode.com is a lot more work but it's actually a plus because you get to increase your skills while having fun. :)