Here are some the best articles on SharePoint that have been posted recently:

• Creating a solution to deploy custom publishing items - Most of the documentation I’ve seen out there around creating publishing items such as master pages and page layouts has developers using SharePoint Designer to create them. This is ok, but I see problems with the approach when it comes to more robust development, and I’ve always asked the question “how do you develop a master page or page layout locally in development, and deploy it to a completely different farm?”…
• Associating the default page in a SharePoint 2007 publishing site with a custom content type and a custom page layout - In the MOSS 2007 intranets we build for our customers, we try to encourage them to use custom content types to manage the documents and publishing pages. In these projects we always create new page layouts, new content types and associate the page layouts with the new page layouts. The page layout contains the desired layout of the pages and the usercontrols that make it easier for users to edit the metadata while creating content.
• Accessing the User Profile in both MOSS and WSS - A subset of the user profile, including the “About Me” description and picture, is available in the AllUserAccounts list of the site collection’s root site. This is common to both “pure” WSS installations and MOSS installations, where this information is rendered and edited in the user’s My Site. This includes the fields: Account (”Title” field, this is the windows account), Name, E-Mail, About Me, Picture, Department, Job Title and SIP Address. In MOSS, the MOSS profile will get synced back to this list.
• Testing Windows Server 2008 using Virtual PC (step-by-step) - I could keep on and on with the feature list, but you probably already got the point. Unlike Windows Server 2003 R2, which many have simply ignored, this next Windows Server release will make waves. Big waves. That means one thing if you use Windows Server: you have a lot of learning and testing ahead of you. That’s why I decided to put together some step-by-step instructions on what you need to get you’re your virtual lab going. Let’s get started! You have no time to spare…
• Depth and Breadth in a SharePoint Architect Skillset - So without laughing, I thought… I’ll have to blog on the real depth and breadth that you both gain and have to learn and know to be an expert also known as a SharePoint IT Pro and Architect (minus the dev side, I’ll let someone else speak to the CAML, ASP.NET, and relevant Visual Studio and C# skills). In the Microsoft infrastructure world, I’d wonder what you don’t need to know…
• Building and deploying SharePoint Solution packages - First of all, let’s be clear on exactly what a Solution package is. Note I’m using ‘Solution’ with a capital S in this article to distinguish between what we are discussing here and the general idea of a technical solution built using SharePoint. A Solution is a package of SharePoint items for deployment …

Stay tuned as I try to ramp up some projects.