Shopping

Oracle Database - Never thought about buying that... You must really be enjoying database work. I've never had anything complex enought to warrant more than MySQL or PostGRE.
MS Visio - Use it all the time, there is some other program out there called SmartDraw or something like that.
MS Project - I have nothing big enough to have a need for it. Alienbrains management stuff has always been enough. I tried phpProjekt a long time ago but it was so un-convient to use. It made work a lot of work.
Effective C++ third edition - Never heard of that one. Is it as good as "Efficient C++"?

http://www.saigumi.net/pivot/entry.php?id=27

Yes, I did not really need the MS Project, but I thougth 'I'm buying all this stuff, so why not an MS Project in addition?' ;)
About Effective C++: There is a quite nice slashdot summary about it: http://books.slashdot.org/books/05/06/07/1531214.shtml?tid=156&tid=6

It must have been rather expensive ;-). I remember I bought MS project once, and it itself is not what can be called cheap for an individual

How much did Oracle run you? I don't even wan't to think about it because I know MSSQL is like $5,000 a processor for a full version. Did you get some sort of limited or mayve a development version?

Not that much. I bought student versions from my university, and they are very cheap.