>>1
I use rails at work. When I started, I had never done any web programming except for a little html and some very simple python cgi scripts. I got my start with it by playing and figuring out stuff I needed to know as I went, and filled in the rest by reading Agile Web Development with Rails (
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/title/rails/) on a roadtrip. If you've never used a scripting language before, write a few simple scripts to get used to ruby's syntax (when you get ruby installed, at a command prompt you can type irb --simple-prompt to get a ruby shell that's invaluable for beginners). Then program a little "hello world" rails app to get the basics down. It's seriously easy.