When I first discovered Java stored procedures, I made a formal presentation of my findings to the IT department of the company where I worked, giving several examples, including using Java in an Oracle database to send e-mail, to read web pages, and to calculate Unix crypt values for the authentication of application users. That was in 2001, and as we shall see as we go through this text, I am still presenting the same ideas. However, it is only now that these ideas can be realized, on account of the upgrade to the Oracle JVM that happened with Oracle database 11g. With Oracle database 11g, Oracle has upgraded the Oracle JVM to run with Java version 1.5, which includes a significant upgrade to the Java cryptography extension (JCE) package included with the JVM.