The rhythms I present are available in midi (yep, the hyperlink), using channel 10 for the drums.
To check the settings of your midi device just click on the buttons beneath and listen to the sound coming out of your speakers, it has to be more or less the sound of the instrument wich name you clicked.

Untill now all rhythms are in a 4/4 measure. This means that there are four beats per measure. A beat is called a quarter note (don't ask me why, it's not in the scope of this blablabla). Each beat is split into four sixteenth notes, so you can have four strikes per beat. (1/4 devided by 4 is 1/16.) This is why my graphical presentation looks like this:

cymbal   |................|................|

snare    |................|................|

hi-hat   |................|................|

bassdrum |................|................|

What you see here are two bars or measures, divided with a "|".
Each bar has sixteen dots, representing the sixteenth notes in one bar.
In my notation, a dot means 'no strike' and an 'x' means 'strike'. So, in the example above you can see two bars of silence.
A rhythm with the bassdrum playing each first and third count, and the snare playing each second and fourth count will look like this:

cymbal   |................|................|

snare    |....x.......x...|....x.......x...|

hi-hat   |................|................|

bassdrum |x.......x.......|x.......x.......|

This should be enough for now. Starting with Lesson 1 should clear all your questions or doubts, and if not, you can always e-mail me!

Enjoy....