Good stuff. I forgot about external tables. Though, i'm not sure PM would appreciate that too much anyway. :)

I guess security is out the window when you retrieve stuff from remote sites straight into your database

Every once in a while i want to query or move data between multiple environments. Normally, this would require a database link which requires authorization by the DBAs and so on. So, i installed a local database with database links. Very convenient, at least. :)