If you still want to learn some programming, and make an 'embedded app', save it for your NEXT project. With NO programming experience, you may want to go with the BASIC STAMP, and compare the literature versus the Arduino. Yes, its more expensive, and probably runs slower, but I suspect the learning curve is a bit easier [BASIC versus C].
IMO the Basic Stamp is both obscenely expensive and very slow. There is a free version of the Bascom BASIC compiler for the AVR series microcontrollers. It's nearly as easy as Stamp, it's *many* times faster, and a free compiler, $20 programming cable and $2 microcontrollers are a bargain compared to the expensive stamps.
