Microsoft have posted an IE8 beta download page:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/default.mspx

I’m also glad to see they have rethought the whole default IE7 rendering mode too, seems to make a lot more sense that it defaults to the most recent rendering mode, and by default renders as strictly as possible. I don’t see this as being an issue if you write standardised x/html.

I have read (and own) a few of the books on this recommended list over on CodeBetter.

http://codebetter.com/blogs/ian_cooper/archive/2008/03/04/some-recommended-books.aspx

I would definately recommend the Head First Design Patterns book, it was the first one I read that got me excited about solution design. The GOF Design Patterns book is a good reference read after that, although I wouldn’t recommend reading that first. Fowler’s Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture book is also a great reference.

I have been meaning to get hold of some of the DDD and SOA books mentioned for some time, and for that matter the TDD books are probably worth a look too.