http://www.blender.org/education-help/http://cgterminal.com/2011/08/23/an-introduction-to-blender-2-59-free-ebook/http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=blender+2.61+tutorial&psj=1&oq=blender+2.61+tutorial&aq=f&aqi=g3g-m1g-b6&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=1561l15881l0l16978l21l20l0l1l1l3l761l7403l0.1.10.0.3.4.1l19l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=a40723af4d2b94e4&biw=1016&bih=634Yes, some icons in the newer version were changed, but their LOCATIONS have not. If you had taken a gander through the rest of the thread, a lot of the differences were explained. The WINDOW VIEW BUTTON is on the LEFT hand side of the HEADER. It is a SMALL, SQUARE button with TWO SMALL ARROWS in it that indicate it as a DROP-DOWN MENU. 3-d view will be associated with a MINI CUBE IMAGE.
Whether or not YOU find the tutorial helpful, does not negate it's use to everyone else. It still has it's use and has still been helpful to a NUMBER of other players.
This tutorial is NOT the only way to work with blender. It is not some OFFICIAL PROPER way. It is but ONE way, that was learned over 3 years of hard work. And is intended only as the guide that it was written to be. It is stated over and over that the version used is older. There are LINKS RIGHT ON THE FIRST POST to the older versions.
There are LITERALLY HUNDREDS if not thousands of TUTORIALS, MANUALS, and HOW-TO GUIDES for working with a number of different versions of blender.
NONE of which will have you turned into a blender expert overnight. It just doesn't happen.
About setting up a material code linked to a mesh, THAT'S ON THE FIRST PAGE.
About the mirror, if you hit 'apply' before you had begun working, this would cause the planes to not be mirrored. Other issues may be: you are viewing the plane from the side view and mirrored across the x axis, the mirrored plane is behind the one you are viewing. OR you did not move the original plane away from the center point, so it's mirror is over-lapping the original.