I agree with matt on this one. Except not python OR perl, only python. Python's syntax is a whole lot easier than perls, becasue in perl there are a whole bunch of ways to do the same thing. Python is the language that I started with, and I HIGHLY reccommend it to anyone else who is starting. From there, go whereever you want, although C++ (or one of the other C's would be a good choice)
Itsme