Made In Machines

I'm about to create a background image in photoshop to use as a background design for a website but not sure what size/ratio to make my image. Ideally you don't want the image to get squished or stretched depending on different monitors and browsers. Then there's retina and new high-res screens. What would be best to ensure I have long term compatibility with as many different users as possible? Personally I am currently on a 1440x900 screen. Also what resolution should I choose? Thanks

Hi, I'm trying to learn web development / design from pretty much scratch. I did a few months course building a basic dreamweaver website and that is about it really. I have an a business idea or two and I google searched for how to design a site like beatport as I feel something like the beatport design http://www.beatport.com/ or http://www.loopmasters.com/ - front end and back end - would be quite appropriate for my ideas. I don't have a buget for anything like £10,000+ it may or may not cost to make thread so the only option would be to do it myself. However due to my limited knowledge of web design the comments in this tread don't make much sense to me or help clarify anything so I have a few questions: 1) Is it even possible for one man with very little / no web design or development knowledge to build something like the beatport or loopmasters site? (I'm aware that this might be a completely ridiculous idea way beyond my ability) 2) How long might this take roughly both for a pro who knows what they are doing and a beginner? How much would a pro charge for this? 3) What resources would I need to gain the necessary skills and learn about everything associated with the inner workings and aesthetic design of a site like beatport? If anyone could recommend Books & Video Tutorials etc. that would be of great help. Can this kind of thing be done in dreamweaver or is that only a tiny part of the whole picture. Do I need software developer skills? I need to start with the most basic of concepts such as what is xpressionengine / zen cart / open cart and how do they work. From the most basic web design work I've done so far I have a rough idea of how incredibly difficult it might be to learn. I'm just completely lost as to where to start learning and what I need to learn to be competent in building sites this complex. I'm not even sure what Flash, PHP, MySQL or Javascrip are really for example and if I need to know them. The few things I know are some basic web page creation with HTML & CSS. So far I have found good amazon reviews on 2 books: Robin Nixon - Learning PHP, MySQL, and Javascript: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites Jon Duckett - HTML & CSS Are these the books i need to read and learn to be able to built something like beatport or are they just the tip if the iceberg in allowing me to create basic websites? What books, tutorial websites and video tutorials would you recommend? Please be gentle with me! Thanks

I have many very basic beginners questions regarding learning how to create sites like beatport. If anyone could help share their knowledge or show me where to get such knowledge I would be most appreciative. Here's the link to my topic: http://www.webdesign...now-read-watch/ Thanks