It's over now. I had in my hands a Nikon D300 with no manual. I had never used, nor even handled a Nikon DSLR and the controls made no sense to me. I was trying to figure out the basics like adjusting the shutter, f-stop and such (there's a separate ISO button so I figured that one out). However, I eventually got it, was able to teach Mr. Professer how to shoot it, then the manual turned up.
The Pentax mode dial thingy is rather obvious as to what mode you are shooting in. The Nikon is not so obvious and you have to basically decipher their codes. I was having trouble with the deciphering not having a reference to work from. Experimentation cured that. All done now. Thanks.