I have attempted to transfer the salient wisdom from this thread (so far) into a slide show that separates the main topics into about 40 slides. I hope this will be useful for offline presentation at a team meeting of rookies or otherwise interested parties. Bring your own refreshments.
When I figure out how to link the CD media page with it to here, I will do that, unless, of course, someone beats me to it.
meanwhile, search "rookie" tag, or just look for recent stuff.