Two suggestions:
First, ":set list". Love the mnemonic.
http://www.chrispian.com/quick-vi-tip-show-hidden-characters/
I recently found out that using this causes all tab characters to be ripped out or something?
Heres the post that mentioned replacing the /t's, using :e ++ff unix, and other neat hints:
http://superuser.com/questions/97692/vim-show-line-feeds-carriage-return
