[X] My Assistant

[Floyd]

I've been a member almost 3 years and have made 300 posts, but I still haven't figured out a lot of simple things about this Forum.
For example, I have no trouble linking to pictures on the web sites using the Insert Link, but I haven't figured out how to drop in a simple cropped image. Well I actually did that in the "Ring near edge on illumination" topic today, but I don't know how I did it. I tried cutting and pasting and nothing showed up in the editing box or in the preview. I tried uploading the cropped file, but then again saw nothing in the preview. I gave up and just posted---magically my cropped image was there. Someone please help!
How do you get an image from your computer into a post? So that the whole image is there, or the automatically resized thumbnail?
When you go to Today's Active Topics, there are briefcases to the left. The color coding is explained at the bottom of the page. For some topics, the briefcase has a reversed L shape on the bottom right. What the hell does this signify?

I hope this thread can be place for people to ask questions they thought were too embarasing or basic to ask--