Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.
ihumanable: If you want to get a handle on the basics, especially ruby basics, try out ruby koans.http://github.com/edgecase/ruby_koansThey are simple exercises that you can work through without prior knowledge, its a fast and fun way to get your feet wet.  Then its important to read some books and get a good foundation under those wet feet, but we all know books can be boring, try to find one that has an actual project you work on throughout, seeing concepts come to life in front of you can be really helpful.Then try to look at some code, since you are using rails I would highly suggest railscasts ( http://railscasts.com/ ) they are short videos, but there are 188 as of this writing that show some cool stuff about rails and get you in the hacker mindset.