Following what other people said.. Python is a great (and powerful) language to get started with. It is what we teach our CS110 class at my University. Honestly, get a Mac or, like espeed said, install linux. Learning bash is invaluable. Also, learn HTML5/CSS. Every business needs a website, and with as powerful as HTM5 is, you could get up a decent one with just those two things (though javascript would be handy).
There are a ton of good resources online. Hacker News is awesome, Stack Overflow, etc. Python has a nice and free online book to get you started.
Best of luck!
Oh, I agree with the need for a good editor. Emacs is great (of course others will argue for VIM of course ;). Unless things have changed in the last release, you'll have to install it yourself which is one of the reasons people choose the lighter weight editor of VIM.
If you have a mac, I would suggest TextMate. I recently came across SublimeText 2 which is currently in alpha stages but is really cool too! It is cross platform so it will also work on Linux.
There are a ton of good resources online. Hacker News is awesome, Stack Overflow, etc. Python has a nice and free online book to get you started.
Best of luck!
Oh, I agree with the need for a good editor. Emacs is great (of course others will argue for VIM of course ;). Unless things have changed in the last release, you'll have to install it yourself which is one of the reasons people choose the lighter weight editor of VIM.
If you have a mac, I would suggest TextMate. I recently came across SublimeText 2 which is currently in alpha stages but is really cool too! It is cross platform so it will also work on Linux.