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I'd like to find some to choose from that have examples and exercises so that I can follow along at home.
I own a Windows netbook and a Mac laptop, so anything that I can play with on these would be great :)

You need to learn some basic programming techniques first. All programming languages have them:
Conditions, loops and variables. Start with a simple language (at least simple to start with) until you get the hang of it.
So pick a language, Perl, PHP, Python are all free (google to find where to get them) and you can write a simple programs using any text editor, like notepad.
O'Reilly books are good. They have them for every language and their "Learning ..." books are for beginners. Click the programming selection on left side of their web site. And pick a language. They all have a Learning introductory text.

Try SAMS teach yourself such-and-such in 24 hours or 21 days or whatever.

No kidding. You can find them online, work through the examples whether you know the language or not, and then see whether you like the language enough to dig in and really learn it.
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