I started with Python & Google App Engine. I would recommend this to anyone. You don't have to worry about the server and can just pay attention to actually learning a server-side language (assuming that is what you want to focus on).
Check out http://learnpythonthehardway.org/index
O'Reilly books are excellent too. If you have any questions, my email is on my profile.
Don't stop - code every day!
A real treasure trove about basically everything and anything you'd be interested in for entrepreneurship, job finding, programming, school, life, ...anything.
Another great HN tool is http://searchyc.com. You can search submission submission titles, comments, and get feeds for most types of things.
But I have to say, as others have said - you just have to get down and code. I've covered a lot material, but the moment you sit down to write a piece of code by yourself - the game changes. Its like a different dimension.
So my advice to you as a fellow noobie is run through the tutorials enough so that you know your M from your C and get writing.
Join StackOverflow (which never ceases to amaze me) and read read read!
Best of luck.
Tons of "Ask HN" posts on this topic have already been posted. The first step to showing people you're serious is to actually do your own research first.
The post that got me started with writing code was http://iamelgringo.blogspot.com/2008/05/teach-yourself-you-t...
You need to start building stuff. The only time I've ever learned to code was when I was trying to build something. Reading books, taking algorithm classes, etc never did anything for me. Give me a real world problem and turn me loose. That's how I learn best, and I expect most people do too.
Your choice of language is almost irrelevant when first starting out as long as you pick something like php, python, or ruby. As the languages get more exotic or lower level they can become increasingly more difficult to learn.
Run with Ruby and enjoy!
If you want to do front end web dev, learn these languages in this order:
HTML - http://www.w3schools.com/html/ CSS - http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp Javascript - http://eloquentjavascript.net/contents.html
And then pick one of the following two: PHP - http://www.tuxradar.com/practicalphp or Rails - http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book
There are many languages that you can learn for front end other than RoR and PHP, but they are two of the most popular right now, and will almost certainly suit your needs. Good luck, and stick with it when it gets frustrating, learning how to code is definitely worth it!
If you want to learn how to code backend stuff pick either python, ruby or php.
[1] Ruby Guides - http://guides.rubyonrails.org/
[2] Rails Tutorial - http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book