Netscape stock is splitting 2-for-1, after having risen above $100/share. The company is valued at $3.5B -- compared to Apple's $5.1B on $11B revenues -- even though it's barely turned its first profit and has revenues under $40M. Most profitless IPOs achieve values nearer $250M or $300M, but Netscape started at $1B just 97 days ago. The Internet industry as a whole has about $1B in revenues, but may reach $25B by the end of the decade. [Arthur M. Louis and Herb Greenberg, SF Chronicle, 11/15/95, B1.]

Another skyrocketing Internet company is Spyglass Inc., which also makes browsers. It closed at $92 on 11/10/95, up $20 for the week. UUNet Technologies Inc. closed at $72.50, and Sun at $89.87 -- double its price this summer. Borland's shares rose 40% after it announced that it would develop Java software. [Lee Gomes, SJM, 11/11/95, 1D.]

Arbor Software Corp. (Sunnyvale) is another astonishing IPO. It opened at $17 on 11/7/95, closing at $39.25 -- a 131% jump that beat Netscape's initial surge of 108%. Arbor develops OLAP software: online analytical processing, enabling spreadsheet users to explore data from corporate databases. The company has 115 employees. President James Dorrian, 43, holds stock worth $31M; CTO Robert Earle, 45, has $37M. Neither man has experience at a big Silicon Valley company, or even a degree from a prestigious university. (Ann Winblad, their first venture capital backer, calls them "smart mutts.") [Mike Langberg, SJM, 11/8/95, 1C.]

Life at the top is high-pressure. Richard Guarino, acting president of Taligent, died of a heart attack 10/29/95 while jogging in Los Gatos. [SJM. NewtNews, 11/13/95. Bill Park.]

Oracle says it will be selling $500 Internet "appliances" by summer, for connection to a monitor or TV. (Some analysts say it will be more like $1K.) Several phone companies are planning fast ISDN connections for about $19.95/month. [Michelle Quinn, SF Chronicle, 11/15/95, B1.]

Oracle has its own Network Computer Operating System (NCOS). [Mark Halper, SJM, 11/11/95, 1D.] Apple is rumored to be negotiating with Oracle concerning either Newton interface technology or running NCOS on the Newton. IBM and Sun like the idea of diskless home/school computers; Microsoft and many PC/Windows analysts scoff. "The idea has generated excitement in the computer industry, mostly because Microsoft and Intel are not leading the charge." [Michelle Quinn, SF Chronicle, 11/14/95, C1.]

(I say it'll work. Never run out of disk space again, or do backups, or use obsolete utilities or application versions, or have trouble with installations, or worry about viruses, or have to upgrade your home box with faster chips or new audio/video cards. It's like connecting a terminal to a university mainframe, except that the university is now the whole world. Still, couldn't I have a _little_ private disk space on my own machine? Maybe a ZIP floppy?)

MacWay, or the Macintosh EvangeList, is an announcement list from Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki, . Send a "subscribe macway your name" message to . [comp.sys.mac.advocacy, 11/11/95.]

("With all this horse manure, there's just got to be a pony in there somewhere." -- Social scientist Langdon Winner, about the Web. [Technology Review, 11/95, p. 66. EDUPAGE.])

Big Dreams is a monthly magazine about business as a journey to personal development. "Reading this regularly should be a part of any new employee's requirements." . [Robert Jacobson , 11/2/95.]

Business Strategies is a monthly newspaper for business owners and managers. . Topics include human resources, marketing, selling, time management, creativity, managing people, etc. [, newjour, 9/3/95.]

FinanceHub lists financial info of all kinds, especially venture capital and project financing resources. Over 6500 users connected to last month, after it was named an October TOP 5% site. FinanceHub is from John Bro, who is finishing graduate studies at UFlorida and starting InterSoft Solutions, or . [, 11/7/95.]

Small US businesses hurt by defense cutbacks can tap a new $1B loan guarantee program from DoD and the Small Business Administration. Loans are at 2.25%-2.75% over prime rate. Call 1-800-8-ASK-SBA for info about the Defense Loan and Technical Assistance program. [SJM, 11/10/95, 1C.]

("It's always easy to work wonders with somebody else's money. The trouble is that you constantly need a fresh supply of somebody elses." -- , com-priv, 5/25/93.)