Simply echoing the highest ID is not an accurate count. If you were to delete any students in the table, the highest ID would still be the same (unless you set up the table otherwise). An easy, although somewhat brute force way, of doing this would be:
$res = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM...
I would suggest adhering to current and future programming standards and learn XML and CSS instead. Not necessary, but a much more elegant framework than HTML, and no harder.
True. What 'the fittest' is depends entirely on the environment. Survival is nothing more than using your environment to keep yourself alive. If the environment changes then the adaptations a species has evolved may no longer give them an advantage.
I suggest you become that person or settle for freelance. The programming skills required to make something similar to Facebook are not small. People who have that kind of talent are not going to give away their time to a project that has already been done, with little to no promise of a return...
Financially inclined? Not really, you're thinking of New York. As a Chicagoan I can't give you an honest answer other than we seem to like teams with the letters B (or C) and W. Bulls, Bears, Blackhawks, Cubs, White Sox, Wolves......I don't know.