The Ruby on Rails Tutorial for Rails 4.0 (beta)
Hartl's Rails Tutorial is by far the best and most pragmatic programming tutorial I have ever read.  I used it to get me started with Rails 3 (bought the hard copy) and I still consult it all the time when working in Rails.  I have never felt so empowered as a programmer the first time I build that twitter clone from the tutorial.  It didn't teach me anything about algorithms, databases, or any of the core things I learn in school.  Instead it taught me serious practical things like deployment, rapid prototyping, version control, and so much more.  Michael, if you're still reading this thread: Thank You.  You made programming exciting for me.