Two Questions

One Question now.

Question#1- If you have a really really big image (like 800 by 600 or something really big) how do you go about getting it down to 100 x 100. I have tried resizing the whole image to a smaller size then resizing it a few more times and then finally resizing it to 100x100 and then I have tried to just resize the huge image to 100x100 right away. Both methods come out looking a little distorted and pixely. Do you have any suggestions on how to resize these humungous images.