Hippynerd:
I wasnt sure about that, but i had assumed that if sinking, we didnt need the caps, but I wasnt sure.So are these true statements?
If you are sinking only, then you dont need de-coupling caps.
You might. When the chip is sinking current they can stop the chip's serial-to-parallel-conversion logic from freaking out if the voltage droops.
Real engineers keep telling me I can never have too much decoupling.
Hippynerd:
Will any type of cap work for decoupling? can I use electrolytic or tantalum? I assume ceramic caps are used because they are inexpensive.
No. Ceramic are used because they have a faster response time than either of those.