what's with the number

I've noticed a number 3 above the email icon? Also....under shared there is a pic of a monitor with a 7br1s01 and another monitor that says officecomputer...what gives? I also tried to connect my laptop to my hp printer that's connected to my pc desktop. I was told to change some preferences on my desktop computer and then go into terminal and type a bunch of stuff....it asked for a password...I wasn't able to type it....geez...I actually consider myself computer literate. This is like a foreign language. Do I need to start over with the startup disks?

If you have your e-mail open, but the window closed. It will report the number of unread e-mails. In your case you see a three in the up right corner of the postage stamp.

Well...thanks...but I finally figured that one out.