Oracle SQLPlus Without Password

Many Oracle administrators are concerned about hard-coding passwords
in scripts and crontabs. Oracle 9i from the command line allows a simple
logon like this: oracle@bighost $ sqlplus '/ as sysdba'

This provides a simple method to run scripts without a password.
Another method is to create and externally authenticated account, such as
ops$oracle. Then log on with: oracle@bighost $ sqlplus /

When using either method, remember to set up the shell environment
variables before running sqlplus.

Oracle SQL Developer

Oracle has released SQL Developer, a no-charge GUI tool for developers.

Quest has sold TOAD for several years, though hasn't done much develop in recent years. When in a software development office, the morning are filled with the croaking toad sound when developers start the application.

Tora is an open source package that has similar functionality.

Zfone VoIP Encryption

Philip Zimmermann has released Zfone, a VoIP encryption package that works with Gizmo and other VoIP services. He has submitted the package as a proposed IETF standard.