For the picture resizing, I LOVE this power toy I got from Microsoft. If you're on a Mac, I guess it should be easier, but I don't know how it could be...
Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
The 'toy' you want is ...
Image Resizer
This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.
So, you use the file explorer (My Documents/My Pictures) and you do a mouse right-click on the file, select Resize Picture, choose the size, done. It creates a new file in the same folder with the same name, but a (small) or (medium), or other added to the name. If you select a bunch of files, it will do them all. It's awesome.