Grinding vs pre-ground yes. The problem with ground coffee is that is becomes stale quickly (and so do beans but not as fast). Just moving from grounds to bean was a huge step. And now I only grind what I'm going to drink.
A mill grinder will grind most consistently which is supposed to result in better tasting coffee. Not sure how much of an improvement this yields, but from what I've read it's a lot.
For my coffee storage (beans) I use a non see though air tight container. light and air = EVIL
The way I understand it, the coffee snob progression goes something like this:
1. filtered over tap water
2. beans over pre-ground coffee
3. mill over blade grinder
4. fresh beans (local shop) over store shelf beans
Not sure where coffee brewing system comes in there (as 4. or 5.) or what exactly the hierarchy there is. Drip brewing is on the low end I know unless you get a quality machine.
For weekend drinking, I have a french press that works really well and tastes better than my drip maker.
