I have been planning a personal project and have been thinking about development platforms. I thought about Java and it’s just a bit much, entertained the idea of .NET and it’s too Microsoft and then I looked at Rails. I am a big fan of 37signals and the applications they have built on Rails. So I started messing around and I’m finding Rails to be really well thought out. Ruby is a great language and provides all features I need to build my little project. Rails is very friendly from a development, testing and design perspective. If you need a good book on Rails try Agile Web Development with Rails by Dave Thomas and David Heinemeier Hansson with Leon Breedt, Mike Clark, Thomas Fuchs, and Andreas Schwarz.