Doing a little research on the web, I found out that this problem is occured when we try to install DirectX 9.0c over DirectX 9.0b in Windows XP SP2 OS. I were using SP2 Beta with 9.0b at that time, so it seemed that my condition applied to the problem.

More deeper research revealed that this is a (stupid) bug from Microsoft’s DirectX 9.0c installation program. Technically, the install program (setup.exe) will check the Windows version first. If it is Windows XP with SP2 installed, it will then check the DirectX version, but only the major version (the number behind the dot). If it is “9″ (including 9.0a and 9.0b), the program will think that you already have DirectX 9.0c installed since most Windows XP SP2 installation already come with that DirectX version. Big mistake, isn’t it?

So anyway, here’s the solution for the DirectX 9.0c installation problem.

1. Get DirectX Uninstall program. There are lot of them on the web. Search using “directx uninstall download” keyword will do. Most of them are freeware so don’t worry about wasting extra money.
2. Run the program you’ve just downloaded. I think all, if not most of them, will ask you to restart the computer. Do it.
3. Once your computer restarted, your DirectX 9.0b (or 9.0a) is gone. Instead, you’ll get the native DirectX 8.1 that come with the original Windows XP installation.
4. Try to install DirectX 9.0c now. If it works, you’re done. If it’s not, go on with the next step. Mine won’t install in this step, but I read some comment/solution on the web said that it did work, so give it a try first.
5. Download DirectX 9.0b distribution package. You will also need 9.0c distribution package, so download it if you don’t have it yet. Extract them on any folder you want, for example: DX9B (for DirectX 9.0b) and DX9C (for DirectX 9.0c).
6. Now here goes the tricky part. Copy all the CAB files from your DirectX 9.0c folder (DX9C) into your DirectX 9.0b folder (DX9B). Choose “YES” when prompted to overwrite files. Note that copying NON-CAB files from DX9B into DX9C might also work (I didn’t try it so I can’t guarantee it).
7. Run the DirectX installation program from the 9.0B folder (DX9B). DirectX 9.0c installation should work now.

It works for me, so I hope it’d work for you too, guys!

[ Source ]

[ Read Tutorial ] [ Via TipMonkies ]

Get Cooking with Photoshop and CSS – 3 Low-fat Recipes

Are you a CSS guru… but a layout and graphics newbie? Or are you a whiz at making great Websites using tables, but feel lost with this whole CSS thing? Perhaps you’re a little bit of both… or are trying to be! You may have gone through lots of Photoshop or Fireworks tutorials, and pored over even more CSS tutorials, but how do you combine great graphics, layouts, and CSS to produce an outstanding Website?

[ Read Article ]

Digg description from their site:

What’s Digg? Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, dynamic social RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allowing an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.

In the following tutorial, I’ll show you how to add digg story into your blog.

1. Go to Digg website.
2. Find the story you want to put on your blog. Then click on Blog This link below the story.

   

3. On the Post Item to My Blog page, you can modify the title and the story. Note that Digg will automatically add a link to the story, either the real source or the Digg’s site. You have to edit them later from your blog’s admin. Click Submit when you’re done editing.

   

4. Now check your blog. The story will appear on your blog. You can edit them, like formatting the link to the story. Here’s a sample result in my blog.

   

Don’t forget, before you can use this feature, you have to configure your Digg preference. Create a new user first on your blog and give it access to post an entry.

Of course, writing an original post still much appreciated than just copy-paste from other source )

– yes, I know, sometime I still do the copy-paste thingy :p

[ Read Tutorial ]

The Easy Ajax Implementation

For our study case, we’re going to make a simple voting/rating booth application. We’re going to make 2 files, one for the front-end (vote.php, handle the user interface) and one for the back-end (sendVote.php, handle the data saving and retrieval).

First, here’s the code for vote.php (we’ll explain this later)

[php]< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

[/php]

And the second file, sendVote.php

[php]< ?php
echo $_GET['value'];
?>[/php]

Before we continue, let’s try it first by calling vote.php from your web browser. Notice that after you select the rating and hit Vote button, the rating you choose will be displayed on the texbox below.

Live Demo: http://www.funponsel.com/dev/ajax_vote/vote.php

In this first sample, the process is really simple. We haven’t process the rating value yet (no database involved), instead, we just send it back as an output for the back-end process. When you hit the Vote button, the JavaScript function, updateVote() will be called. In this stage, voteId and voteValue (rating value) are taken from the form and sent to sendVote.php as a parameter through XMLHttpRequest object.

The purpose of handleHttpResponse() function is to handle any change on the request status. When the status equal to 4 (readyState == 4), then the request process is over. Or it means that the back-end process already return output. After that, return output is taken from ResponseText attribute and then displayed on the textbox.

As already mention, there is no interaction with the database yet. Hey, we haven’t even create the database ) sendVote.php will simply take the parameter and return the value right away (echo $_GET['value'];.

What about getHTTPObject() function? Don’t bother with it The point is almost the same as what we’ve learned before on the first part, but with a little bit more twist ) So let’s just focus on the XMLHttpRequest process

Notice that in this first example we only use XHTML, a simple DOM, and XMLHttpRequest. Just like what I already said before on the first part. No need to worry about learning Ajax on the hard way (with all the complexity of XMLDOM and CSS), as the easy way already exists )

On the next page, we will modify our code above and start communication with the database.

Introduction

Ajax is the current rising star in the web development field. Several popular company already started using Ajax, including: Google (Gmail, GMaps, GSuggest, GGroups), Amazon (A9.com), Flickr, and Orkut.

Ajax is not a new technology. It’s a new developing approach, based on the following existing technologies:

• XHTML and CSS for standard presentation,
• DOM (Document Object Model) for dynamic and interactive presentation,
• XML and XSLT for data exchange and manipulation, and
• XMLHttpRequest for asynchronius data retrieval

The foundation of Ajax is XMLHttpRequest object. It was first implemented by Microsoft on Internet Explorer 5 as an ActiveX object. Later, Mozilla engineers developed a compatible native version for Mozilla 1.0 (and Netscape 7), followed by Apple on their Safari 1.2 browser.

In short, the purpose of this XMLHttpRequest object is to handle data request asynchronously in the background for any web application who need to exchange and manipulate data on-the-fly without reloading the page. In traditional data processing, user submits the data through form, browser sends the data to the server, then server return the output through a new page, so browser need to load that new page in order to display the result to user.

To see what Ajax looks like, just login to your GMail account (if you don’t have one, get it free here ), and check your inbox. You’ll see a “Loading” message on the top right of the screen. Then the message disappear, and a list of your inbox message is displayed. All of them happen without reloading the page. Compare the process with Yahoo! Mail or HotMail. Google’s GMail used Ajax, and that’s what you get with Ajax implementation. Cool, huh? )

On the next page, we will discuss more about XMLHttpRequest object.

Implementasi

Untuk percobaan, kita akan membuat sebuah aplikasi voting/rating booth sederhana. Secara umum, kita akan menyiapkan 2 buah file, yaitu sebuah file HTML (atau PHP) untuk presentasi ke layar dan sebuah file script PHP untuk melakukan proses backend (retrieve & save data).

File pertama, vote.htm

[html]< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

[/html]

File kedua, sendVote.php

[php]< ?php

echo $_GET['value'];

?>[/php]

Sebelum dibahas, coba jalankan dulu dng cara memanggil file vote.htm. Perhatkan, pada saat Anda memilih nilai rating dan menekan tombol Vote, beberapa saat kemudian nilai tersebut akan muncul pada textbox di bawahnya.

Live Demo: http://www.funponsel.com/dev/ajax_vote/vote.php

Pada contoh pertama ini, proses berlangsung sangat sederhana. Pada saat tombol Vote ditekan, maka akan dilakukan pemanggilan function JS updateVote(). Dalam fungsi ini dilakukan pemanggilan thd file sendVote.php dng parameter id dan value yg diambil dari form. Proses pemanggilan dilakukan melalui obyek XMLHttpRequest.

Function handleHttpResponse bertujuan untuk menangani perubahan status request. Apabila status adalah 4, berarti proses telah selesai. Selanjutnya data akan diambil dari atribut ResponseText dan ditampilkan dlm textbox.

Script sendVote.php saat ini masih belum melakukan interaksi dng database. Prosesnya hanyalah menerima parameter value dan mengembalikannya sbg output. Itu sebabnya yg muncul pada textbox adalah nilai yg kita pilih.

Bagaimana dng function getHTTPObject()? Tidak perlu dipikir Intinya hampir sama dng fungsi yg ada pada bagian sebelumnya, hanya sedikit lebih detil (mbulet )

Perhatikan bahwa dlm contoh ini kita hanya menggunakan XHTML, DOM, dan XMLHttpRequest. Sesuai dng yg saya sebutkan sebelumnya DOM yg digunakan pun sangat sederhana, sekedar method getElementById saja.

Pada halaman selanjutnya, kita akan melakukan sedikit modifikasi untuk berkoneksi dng database.