As a relative neophyte to programming, i ended up starting with python, and recommend it whole heartedly. All it takes is the right resource to work from and a little guidance on excersizes that will increase skill. I would suggest downloading "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist", http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ (also available in book format). To suppliment the book, which does suggest activities, Allen Downey has created a set of additionally helpful "labs" (http://rocky.olin.edu/sd/) which are educational, while encouraging the timid with frequent milestones.
Slight correction. Dell complete care covers *almost* everything. Three flights of stairs and you're good, four and it's suddenly not covered. Likewise with spilling most liquids - they're all covered except alcohol, including rubbing alcohol.
Don't ask me how they verify the three flights of stairs thing...
Olin College has done a similar deal with their students for the past year, but it ended up turning out abysmally. All phones on campus are VoIP phones, but the cost of the hardware is prohibitively expensive. Using the computer software would be great, except for the fact that here, laptops are standard, meaning they run out of batteries, move from place to place, and the like, making it not an expecially palatable idea. In practice students have overwhelmingly given up land-lines for cell phones with no long-distance, no roaming, satisfying all phone needs.
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As a relative neophyte to programming, i ended up starting with python, and recommend it whole heartedly. All it takes is the right resource to work from and a little guidance on excersizes that will increase skill. I would suggest downloading "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist", http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ (also available in book format). To suppliment the book, which does suggest activities, Allen Downey has created a set of additionally helpful "labs" (http://rocky.olin.edu/sd/) which are educational, while encouraging the timid with frequent milestones.
Slight correction. Dell complete care covers *almost* everything. Three flights of stairs and you're good, four and it's suddenly not covered. Likewise with spilling most liquids - they're all covered except alcohol, including rubbing alcohol. Don't ask me how they verify the three flights of stairs thing...
Olin College has done a similar deal with their students for the past year, but it ended up turning out abysmally. All phones on campus are VoIP phones, but the cost of the hardware is prohibitively expensive. Using the computer software would be great, except for the fact that here, laptops are standard, meaning they run out of batteries, move from place to place, and the like, making it not an expecially palatable idea. In practice students have overwhelmingly given up land-lines for cell phones with no long-distance, no roaming, satisfying all phone needs.