Help - Where to Start

Hello,
I am new and can't program worth a damn.  Now with that being said I want to build
a web application using postgres > Visual Web > Netbeans 6.1.

I have built apps that work using WebObjects on Mac > but mac screwed us all and depreciated the
tools.

Visual web seems to be a worthy or probably very superior replacement.

My problem is most of the tutorials I see are just for fragments.  
When using WO we had a book that took you step by step building a database driven
web and and the book was great and the app worked.  I just did not get it finished.  
most of the app was built using visual programing and drag and drop images.
I am diedhard Mac X

I am not interested at this time in anything I really don't need like ajax etc

Is there such a book or tutorial or even a full blown app I could look at.

Thanks - Fousto