Know absolutely nothing about programming but want to learn etcetera...

Used computers all my life but know nothing about the codes inside them. I keep coming up with ideas for computer programs which are based on a few simple tasks or calculations which I think a computer could do but I have no idea how to implement them. I think I should get to the level of making a simple card game or something. Then work my way up to making scripts, something that could open up opera browser, search through a site for certain links, open them up and search for pieces of text and put them into a spreadsheet. That would be useful for my stock market research.

For now though I am a complete pleb and don't even know what software I need or how to take the first step. Here are some links I found that I will look at.

http://kickassproxy.me/beginning-programming-with-c-for-dummies-wiley-2014-pdf-golu-t9390415.html

http://it-ebooks.info/book/1256/

https://reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/2qznse/i_need_serious_help_learn_to_program_was_my_new/cnb1luk

http://www.codecademy.com

C++ or java maybe