[development] testing performance?

[Derek Wright]

instead of hijacking my own thread in the initial post, i figured i
should start a new thread about this... ;)

one of the things killes asked about in http://drupal.org/node/18018
(the blocks-by-roles issue) was testing/reviewing the performance
implications of this patch.  is there a good node @ drupal.org that
provides suggestions/best practices for performance testing in various
environments?  is this the best thing going:

http://drupal.org/node/43478#comment-80933   ???

thanks for any wisdom anyone can share.

-derek (dww)