Either Python or Ruby will put you in good hands -- I suspect Ruby is probably better overall if web development is your main focus, but I have to admit that I

Either Python or Ruby will put you in good hands -- I suspect Ruby is probably better overall if web development is your main focus, but I have to admit that I prefer Python, just due to its amazing infrastructure (scipy / numpy, SAGE, NLTK, so on and so forth). Spend a couple of days working through tutorials in either language, and then just pick one or the other based on your gut; you really can't go wrong and you can always learn the other one later. Linode is what I recommend to set up Python hosting, but it means you have to get your hands a bit dirty with installing packages and the like, which you may or may not be interested in doing. You can also just download Virtualbox and set up a VM locally and experiment for free.