Learning to program

My friend told me that starting with Java is a good idea because it's easy and it works on all platforms. Is this true or should I start with something else?

Well... here was my experience learning...
1) When I was young, I messed around with QBASIC and programming shit on my calculator.
2) Took a semester of Java at the University.
3) Over the Summer, I did all the stuff in "The C Programming Language" by K&R, and by the end I pretty much new everything there is to it (It's a simple language).

Honestly, the best start really is just calculator programming or QBASIC programs.  A nice thing about BASIC is the built in graphics calls.
Once you seriously want to learn though, learn C.  It is simple.  It has basically the same syntax as the main programming languages.  It more accurately represents how a computer works than other high level languages.

Move on to a higher level language (Java?) when you want to use some really easy APIs to do something complicated, but don't pass up C.