This student of 18th centaury algorithms is leading a revolution in the way corporations extract information from video, pictures and voice conversations. Having been lent £2,000 by a stranger in a pub to set-up in business, this son of a fireman floated Autonomy at £5 billion.  It entered the FTSE 100 only to crash out.  Through it all Mike Lynch has built a 17,000-strong client list that includes real-time terrorist tracking for the US Department of Homeland Security.