Beginning Programming

Hey /prog/

I've been trying to get into programming for awhile, but I usually get nowhere. Had a lot of free time recently and I'd rather not spend it all at 4chan.

I'm pretty sure I've got the main concepts and basics down but I never practice, so I always end up forgetting or never really appreciating the stuff I read.

What are some basic programs you'd recommend for a beginner? If I had some set goals to practice my programming, maybe I could accomplish something.

>>28
That absolutely terrifies the herd-following, lockstep-marching, mainstream-saluting cowards who obediently dash out to scoop up books on The Latest Thing. They learn and use atrocities like Java, C++, XML, and even Python for the security it gives them and then sit there slaving away miserably, tediously, joylessly paying off mortgages and supporting ungrateful teenagers who despise them, only to look out the double-sealed thermo-pane windows of their central-heated, sound-proofed, dead-bolted, suffocating little nests into the howling gale thinking "what do they know that I do not know?" when they see us under a lean-to hunched over our laptops to shield them from the rain laughing our asses off as we write great code between bong hits.... what was the question?