We can all use a little help from our friends.  That's why I'd like to direct your attention to a few articles written by friends whom I trust and find very credible. 

The first person I'd like to introduce you to is Denny Cherry.  Denny is a senior DBA and an extremely talented hardware person, which is a rare combination these days.  Denny and I met at my spring "Breakfast with the Experts" event hosted by my employer, Quest Software.  Denny was so smart and spot-on, that I strongly encouraged him to get involved in writing.  He's now got a couple tips and articles out the door.  Check them out, a tip on code portability and a tip on SQL Server 2008 data types.

Another bit of good reading that I'd like to point out to you is a great article on the history of Mercury Interactive.  The article is written by Scott Moore, president of Load Tester, a high-end consultancy that does a lot of Mercury consulting as well as consulting towards building up operational excellence in quality assurance.  Scott, when we worked together at Deloitte, and now at LoadTester has helped a number of major and/or large companies turn quality assurance into an IT center of excellence.

Cheers - and let me know what you think!

-Kev