Total Newbie needing DirectX help.

I'm a self-taught programmer, so don't know any of the technical jargon. The more I look into the programming world, the more I realize I don't know jack.

I've got experience with applications programming (built a few IRC chat clients, Database server/clients, things of that nature) but haven't even touched the graphics side of the house. Unless you count my earlier bouts with QBasic.

I've searched the web, and can't find any good VERY basic guides to DirectX. I've downloaded the SDK, and can generally follow it's examples until about three lines into the code.

Does anyone know any good sites, tutorials, etc. on DirectX that are for the Beginner's Beginner? I'm thinking, something along the lines of "Hello World" in 3D.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

http://64.23.12.52/
and then look under code, I found it really usefull.

Yes, that is probably the best site that I know about, but for me,
when i went through the tutorials, and learned what was there, I
wanted more. Probably the best thing that i've ever done was to move
over to C++ for doing DX. So, if you have that option, I recommend
going that way. If not, at least learn to read C++, and what the
differences are between C++ DX and VB DX (eg, You will probably never
use VertexBuffer.Lock(...) in VB, but its almost a requirement in
C++).

I guess my best advice for you is to most definately start small.
Dont rush ahead, because you will get lost. Its a lot of
information, but once youve got it down, it seems easy (until
something goes horribly wrong =). Im rambling, so ill let you go and
check that stuff out, and I hope this helps you out.

Z.