Want to learn to code. Where to start?

I've got a few apps in mind that I've wanted for a while, but so far no one has made anything close to them. I used to work with basic a bit. I have no idea where to start. I'm thinking C? I've found a few tutorials around the web but they haven't been of much use. Maybe a book would help?

I don't want to make a career out of this, or money. I just want to be able to make some apps or scripts when I need them. I work in chemistry and pharmaceuticals and plan to stay there.

umm u could try python. there are some good tutorials out there. and I was looking at MITs website recently and noticed that OCW (open course ware) has and MIT python programing class u can watch for free.

MS has their express versions of their programming languages available. Although they don't have everything their full versions have, they are very good. Also their are huge communities available for whatever language you choose.

http://www.microsoft.com/express/

I find my tux driod to be a good tool for learning as I like using code to make it do things

http://wiki.tuxisalive.com/index.php/Tux_Droid_Suite_development_wiki

Thanks for the ideas!

For learning C++, I found the single best place to start is to learn programming theory, which in effect, teaches you how to program. How you go about this, I can't exactly say, I took a class at my local community college, but this obviously isn't free (unless you get grants like I did, I managed to get paid to go), nor cheap for most people. Buying a book and reading it and doing the examples yourself is probably the most cost effective way, and the books do something most sites doing in providing example problems you can do to hone your skill, though with psuedocode it's more the art side of programming than the science.

Something that teaches theory of programming, as well as psuedo-code, whether a website, a book, etc is the best place to start, because from there, you can go anywhere. Every other language simply becomes a "what's a C++(x) for my psuedo(x)?"

For C++, I tought myself a great deal of the C++ language using the following site:

http://cplusplus.com/

+1 for Java or C#, Free tutorials at MS Technet.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx