Newbie with setup questions

I’ve been reading a lot, getting myself prepared to write my first
application and need some advice on a development environment. The
application is simple enough, just mainly going to be a record keeper,
time sheet management, worklog application. Im using Mediatemple for
hosting right now, and they have an SQL server available. Ive set this
up and it seems to be working with the test apps I’ve done. I have
textmate and have used it (im sure not to the fullest extent) to create
a few of these test apps. My main questions are:

Does anyone know how I can configure my ruby apps to run on a
Mediatemple server?
What is the best way to password protect my information?(there will be
un/pw’s and CC information in there)
I would like to use a WYSIWYG editor for some layout elements of the
site development, and textmate for the rest. I have Dreamweaver, will
this work?
I was using Locomotive before to create a development environment in the
past, with the SQL server it connected to being the one on Mediatemple,
does this seem like the best idea?

I want to get myself to that point where I can just write code and run
it…
Just need some help with the setup.

Many Thanks!

Jonathan