Hello,

I have been a desktop developer for a few years mostly doing object oriented stuff. I am trying to branch out into web development, and as a hobby project trying to put a web application together. I have been reading quite alot of information, but I still can't seem to decide on the path to take and would really like some advice. Basically, I want to build something like this:

http://mon.itor.us/

I have found this as well:

http://www.trilancer.com/jpolite/#t1

But so far it is of little use as I am trying to grasp Javascript. I have been using visual studio for that, is that a good IDE for this tye of thing or should I try expression blend? Jpolite seems to do everything with javascript, which seems kind of cool, but I if I want to make a chart inside a widget that connects to a database, do I need something more? Is this where ASP.NET comes in? I am familiar with .NET, but if I use ASP.NET for my website, do I have to host it on IIS and windows server as opposed to Apache since mono is still being ironed out? Because that would cost more, so would PHP be a better choice? Also, for charting these guys as well as google seem to use flex:

http://www.google.com/finance

I have found this:

http://www.reynoldsftw.com/2009/03/javascript-chart-alternatives/

Would that be sufficient to implement something like google fiance purely in javascript or is there a good reason they use flex?

SOrry for the long post but I was trying to be as detailed as possible. Thanks.