I am a noobie in the web design world. I have put off learning for long enough and I want to learn how to build web pages. I have had a web server with apache on my lan for some time now. I mainly just use it for storage space and image hosting right now.

I searched around on google for sites based around web design and html but the amount of information is just overwhelming. I figured I would make this post and see what all help sites everyone here recommends.

Also what I would like to start is some kind of personal blog database on my site. I have seen alot of personal sites with these but I can't find any info on where to start. To clarify, I would like like a secure way to add a blog from somewhere outside of my lan and have it display the blog on the homepage or something similar.

As you all can see I am pretty lost Just throw me some tips and info and I should be able to take it from there, and hopefully someone knows of a good web developer information site

Do you know Ruby? If so, then Rails is just for you! Check out the "build a weblog in 15 minutes" screencast here: http://www.rubyonrails.org/screencasts

Or check out more pre-packaged systems like WordPress, etc.

I don't know ruby but I have been seeing the name pop up more and more it seems. The video on that site made it seem pretty easy. I will look into it farther over the holidays

Ruby is certainly getting a lot of praise and is worth checking out. However, PHP is tried and true and has tons and tons of examples, articles, tutorials, and books.

You can find a ton of open-source PHP scripts for blogging just as you mentioned (such as BBlog www.bblog.com). You could also use any number of open source CMS packages (Content Management Systems). Most of them also have easy installers to use. It's a good way to get a blog up without having to know PHP programming.

Getting started with web development can seem like a lot at first because there are so many technologies thrown at you (HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, etc) that it seems as though there are too many "languages" to learn. Once you grasp how a website works conceptually, you'll find that it isn't so difficult and that you don't have to be an expert in each "language".

Basically, when a user, the "client" requests a webpage from the "server" which responds by sending an HTML document to the "client". In it's simplest form, an HTML document is simply sent to the client's browser.

An HTML document is very, very simple. It's just a text document which uses markup "tags" to define what type of element to display.

PHP, Ruby, ASP, JSP, etc. are known as "server-side" scripting languages. They take the request from the client, manipulate data and dynamically generate the HTML to send back. That is how we can have all the rich web content we enjoy (such as this forum).

Javascript is a "client-side" scripting language. It allows a web developer to write code into the HTML document that allows things to happen on the client's side-- the web browser. There is no connection (until you get into Ajax) to the server anymore. Javascript is typically used for dynamic menus, form validation, dialog boxes, etc.

CSS is a way to give "styles" to HTML documents.

So, in it's simplest form, HTML is all you need. However, in today's world that just won't be enough. You should probably start with a little bit of HTML and CSS. Once you understand that concept you should then choose a server-side language to create dynamic content. Again, I reccomend PHP since it's so widly used and is open-source.

Great info! Thanks. I will definitely look into bblog over the holidays.

Well long story short, BBlog wouldn't run on my slackware box. The mysql version was too old. Instead of update it I just went ahead and installed ubuntu lamp. I should have been simple but the kernel version was not compatible for my k6-2 cpu. Of course it took me 4 hours to figure that one out. I got bblog up and running but it just wasn't what I wanted. I have decided instead to just do a text journal type blog.

I am still looking for a good general website development website though.

Well there are literally thousands. Do a google search for "gpl source cms" and "gpl blog". As you go through them, look for a link to "demo" so you can try it out before you go through the headache of installing them. But, now that you got LAMP installed--you shouldn't have a problem so long as the CMS or blog you find is PHP/MySQL based (which most are).

I use Joomla on my website (http://www.micahcarrick.com. It's a full CMS system which may be overkill for what you need. Some of the big CMS systems are Joomla, Drupal, XOOPS, and PostNuke.

Hmmmmm... let me try to give you a very brief summary of several years of painful experience.

The world-wide-web went through its "adolescence" period in a very short amount of time. That is to say, "the brief period of everyman's life during which you discover both sex and pimples for the first time, while remaining firmly convinced that you will live forever."

Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, those times are gone .. for good. So, if you are "discovering the web" for the first time now, you may as well start by fast-forwarding past all of those silly diversions. Skip the ads, and go straight to the movie.

What you are dealing with now in "the web" is basically .. publishing. The novelty of web-pages has long ago worn off, and what people expect now from the Internet is dozens or hundreds of pages of information, served-up with a minimum of "useless Windows dressing." Just the results, ma'am.

And for that, my friend, you need to carefully observe the old maxim: Web pages need not be visually stunning .. the viewer is quite jaded now .. they must be informative and consistent. They can come from a database or they can be static pages; it makes not one whit of difference to the user. For both the end-user and for you, "this is a road well-traveled now. Go and do likewise," whatever that may be.

So... there is no practical need to "become an Apache geek." Instead, find what has already been done, and use it to get the job done.

I agree about window dressing. Fancy web sites can really get in the way. Unfortunately for me, I was supposed to learn all this over the holidays which are now gone. I thought I would have alot more time but I didn't. I guess for now I will just keep my website text based which it already is.