You can basically say that everything a computer reads and does is stored as memory. Whether's it's RAM (random-access memory) that a program is currently using, or part of the ROM (read-only memory), the computer is using memory.
I'm quite a fan of C++. It gets the job done, it's fairly easy to comprehend from a logical view, and it provides total control over everything you need to do. I like Python for different reasons; it's very flexible, i.e. in terms of variable types and syntax.