Nice post hamik. I got tired of ongamedev being a rotting roadkill carcass on the road (being dead and all) and moved here.
I would reccomend newbies to start with C++. I started with VB and it was HARD to get used to C++ (others had no problem but not me).
If you use windows and want a great free compiler i would get Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx