Use this little device ... called irfanview.
www.irfanview.com - it's freeware and alows you to resize in a decent way and allows you to change the compression quality.
Other option is photoshop (elements) but that will cost you...
As for the linking...
Not allowed due to problems in the past doing this... I believe the site got slow, pictures were to big, etc. It's the rule around here, so I guess you'll have to live with it, as we all do...
The size is 100 kb, cause there are still people around using the good old 56 k dial-up connection ... we want to keep the simv-experience a "non-frustrating" one... waiting minutes to download a 1.5 mb picture would be frustrating... ;)
There are other sites that allow bigger shots, so you can always point in your posts to this site... just don't link directly to the shot...
Hope this helps!
If you need info on how to use irfanview, just yell!
Cheers,
Omag