Some basic questions

[Rainstorm]

I'm trying to figure out this game as I go along, I have most of the combat figured out, but what is stumping me is empire management. It's just really hard for me to keep track of what all has been built and where it is. I often go through some backwater system and find 2 or 3 ships at a SY just sitting around waiting for orders, this is very annoying. Is there some way to tell a SY to send anything built there to a given point, like a training world?

Also, is there some purpose for the various types of colonies (military, research, etc) you get when you colonize a planet? At that point, how am I supposed to know what kind of world it will be? I usually just pick something at random since as far as I know it doesn't have any game effect.

Finally, with planet values, I've been assuming that the percentages are simply the amount of 'normal' that the planet has of those kind of resources. Is there some kind of breakeven for when it's not worth building mineral mines, etc? I've just been ignoring planets with less than about 90 percent mineral value.

Thanks!