So we picked up a new camera and I'm hoping for some photography 101

[GUINNESS]

My wife and I picked up a Kodak Z740 last Thursday and I'm having a blast with it. The thing is, I want to know more about taking pics. The user guide explains each setting, etc, but I want to know why I would use such settings, or what best manual settings to use.

The camera allows you to set appeture, shutter speed, exposure compensation, and ISO (what's ISO?). It also tells you what the predefined settings are, i.e. Night Landscape no flash f/2.8 - f/3.7 infinity focus daylight white balance center-weight ISO 100. Well that's just dandy, but I have no clue what it all means, why those are the settings, or how I would choose settings under certain circumstances. The attached pic was using night landscape. It's quite possibly one of the best I've ever taken. There was another like it and I used the auto setting and the picture had more of a yellowish orange to it.

Anyhoo, are there books I can read, people here who can share knowledge, websites, etc to give me intro knowledge to photography? Then there's photoshop... god I'm horrible with that application. One thing at a time I guess.