Not getting sharp pictures with your DSLR?

So I was getting a bit frustrated that all my pictures looked less crisp/clear/focused than my stupid little point and shoot digital.  I finally looked it up, because I thought something might be wrong with my camera (I have the Canon Rebel XTi with the EFS 17-55mm lens).  SO GLAD I WAS WRONG.  Anyway, here's what I found out.  This text is quoted from: http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon400D/

"A digital SLR is different from a compact digital camera. It was designed for a different kind of user. Although they have become more user-friendly, they're still a more high-end camera for a more demanding user. Compact digital cameras have a lot of in-camera processing to sharpen the images and enhance the color. Basically, the camera companies want compact digital cameras to deliver very pleasing, easy-to-digest images, right out of the camera. But digital SLRs are different. The goal with a digital SLR is to produce the absolute best quality image - and that's not necessarily going to look great right out of the camera. In-camera processing degrades the ultimate image quality. So digital SLRs back off on the in-camera sharpening, contrast, color saturation, etc., so that the original information is preserved and the photographer can make the decision about how the final image looks. The truth is, your digital XTi images are likely no softer than photos from other cameras you've used. But the point-and-shoot camera processing has made them appear to be softer. Most of us that have been using digital SLRs for a while, do our sharpening after the fact, in Photoshop or some other software. It's the same thing that your old camera did, but we get to decide exactly how it's done and fine-tune it for each image, if we want. In the end it delivers a better quality image.

I would recommend leaving your camera at the default settings and try using Photoshop's Unsharp Mask filter. That will give you the best results."