shortlinks don’t work – non-flash slideshow – permalinks pages and posts

I am a web designer trying to use wordpress on one of my sites primarily as a content management system, but also to create a blog page and a “press” (blog-like) page on their site that can be easily updated by an assistant, without my help.

I have managed to convert my site into a wordpress template. (original site: rlaland.com.. wordpress site: rlaland.com/wp, but I am having a few problems.

1. Shortlinks don’t work. I have never had them work. Not sure what I am missing, but it really hinders what plug ins I can use and the work involved in managing the site.

2. I am trying to have a slideshow that is not flash based and can be updated/added to without touching any code or unordered lists. Preferably, I would like the photos to autosize and be emailable and autoupdate the slideshow. Any ideas?

3. Permalink problem: My site is set up as pages, as most of the pages won’t change very often, but I would like to set up the press section so that posts can easily be added and show up as a link at the top of the page and a post/press clipping in the main page. (something like this (the non-wordpress set up) – https://rlaland.com/test/press.php) However, when I add a post, the current permalink set up, which works for pages, creates a double url listing for posts.

For example, this is the press page with a post listed https://rlaland.com/wp/press/
However, it is listing it by date and I would prefer it listed the title, but in date order.

Then if you click the link to the article you get this page: https://rlaland.com/wp/2010/06/

But the title of the page still shows up as a link and links to this:
https://rlaland.com/wp/http:/rlaland.com/wp/, which of course does not work.

I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer on any of this.

Thanks