There are a lot of tutorials in the Playground. Some were written for older versions of the IDE, and prior to some function call changes. Plus, some were written before newer hardware was released and may not mention something like "does not work on Leonardo" or something like that.
Some authors may have moved on, and you can appreciate it would be a lot of work for someone to make sure every tutorial is absolutely correct, for all available hardware, operating systems, versions of the IDE and so on. It's a moving target, after all.
To be honest, I don't understand where all this anger is coming from. In your first post in this thread you said:
so can someone please explain (and show if possible) the right way of doing it as far as pnp's and capacitors go.
What PNPs? Do you mean transistors? There aren't any in the circuit. On the bildr page you linked (http://bildr.org/2011/02/74hc595/) there is no reference to PNP at all.
So, your question doesn't make a lot of sense. And, if I may ask, why not ask at the bildr page? Surely it's not our fault you are having trouble with a circuit on another web site?
Your posts are coming across as very negative. You ask again: "i just want to know where the freaking pnp's and capacitors go! that's all i'm asking for!!! damn..".
Well, swearing aside, again, what PNPs?
Then: "glad i won't let my son join this forum... i can imagine how he would be treated".
Sorry you feel like that. Perhaps find a friendlier forum ... if you can.
In any case, you might want to "let" your son join and form his own opinions.