daok,
In my opinion, there is no need to feel out of place here, or too much of a newby.
I can understand that this board will feel different than say Sparkfun's. It is different because it is much more focused, it has much more "history", many more "experts", and many more questions to answer.
As such, there is probably a higher expectation that people have done some "homework" before posting. Doing this, makes the questions easier to answer accurately, and means that less time is taken asking you questions.
I've never seen a more helpful group of people in my life. So hang in there! 
It looks like you started with a poorly documented example. You could try to get more info from the author (doubtful) or you can discribe what you need to do differently.