How can I adjust the camera to take quicker pictures? It seems to take too long to actually get the moment I want to take a picture of.

You need to learn the "half-press" technique. You press the button half-way and wait for the camera to lock in the focus (it will beep)...then when the moment is right, press the rest of the way.

the shutter is defective

This is normal behavior for most compact point&shoot cameras, especially one of such vintage. You can eliminate some (though not all) of the delay by pressing the shutter release button halfway to meter and focus, then press the button all the way at the peak moment.

Pre-focus by pressing the shutter button half-way until the camera beeps, then press the rest of the way when the moment is right.

You must press the shutter button half-way to allow the camera to lock in the focus and then you can press it the rest of the way for an almost instant picture.

Push the button half-way and allow the camera to focus before pressing the rest of the way. By pre-focussing, you can wait for just the right moment before pressing the rest of the way.

there probably is but it likely is not called "scan time" or "scan speed". It has to do with the quality of the scan. Lower quality (less resolution, less dpi) gives quicker scan (but like I said, lower quality scan).

some camera's are like that. but i found out when taking the picture click once fast then click twice and hold it down. try that let me now how you went

Try taking off the self timer

My camera has different "modes" and if I put it in the "action" mode it seems to work more quickly between pics. There should also be a setting to change how long the pictures is displayed after taking, if you shorten that it will recover quicker to allow the next picture taking.