I'm stunned. Dave Thomas from the Pragmatic Programmers just informed me that him and Andy are getting behind the community fund raiser for the visual identity for Rails. On behalf of the Pragmatic Bookshelf, they'll be doubling any contribution made by the community!

And since the community has already donated just over $500, the target of $1,000 has been reached with the contribution from the Pragmatic Bookshelf. It all took just seven hours. What an incredibly feat and testimony to the power of open source communities.

I'm really moved that Dave and Andy are taken notice of Ruby on Rails in such a significant way as to pledge $500 in its support. I can't thank you guys enough. But I'll try to return the favor by urging anyone doing Rails development to immediately pickup the Pragmatic Starter Kit. A three-volume series on version control, unit testing, and project automation. Topics that any Rails project would do well to master.

And did you know that the last touches are being put on the 2nd edition of Programming Ruby? It was the first edition that got me into Ruby in the first place and its still the book I use most in my daily work. You need this book if you're thinking about or already doing Ruby. Whether or not it's on Rails.