JW> Have you tested this out? I would be interested in knowing if it works and
JW> what the down sides of it are.

No, I have no time yet :( My interest is the same as yours ;)

JW> I presume you would want to create the database using an alternative OWNER
JW> so that there would still be an avenue of administration. You might also
JW> want to look at that as yet another thing that needs to be locked down too.

Sure, you need to give ALL PRIVILEGES to another user before revoking
from SYSDBA.

- Carlos