HTC Droid Eris

I just got the Droid Eris from Verizon and so far I really like it. Question, is there away to set notification like TEXT messages to silent? I still want the notification in the status bar but I don't want any sound and I don't see this option.

One more thing, any good sites that you can talk about apps? I would like to know the difference between the free "Advanced Task Killer" and the $5 version.

Thanks