Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

The annual Z/Yen Christmas stuffing took place at Caldesi, our favourite Tuscan restaurant. Z/Yen staff bravely fought their way through six courses, including Jane Beazley’s birthday cake, as well as through one badly mangles Christmas carol, to the tune of "D-Mark! Z/Yen Angels Sing". Contrary to our seasonal hopes, the heavens did not flood the party with D-Marks (current currency of choice in the run-up to the Euro, as recommended by one self-interested wife), nor were angels or singing much in evidence. A great time was had by all and huge relief sighed by the restaurant staff when they realised that Z/Yen people were not going to conduct quantum physics experiments on their fibre optic Christmas tree.

Flotation Of Art Gallery – From Our Virtual Correspondent

Word is that over 100 City financial types (presumably the usual bunch of freeloading drink scroungers and canapé coveters) turned up under a misapprehension. They discovered that Z/Yen were not completing a mandate for a chain of art galleries, but sponsoring a floating art exhibition aboard the Thames Sailing Barge, Lady Daphne.

This correspondent, realising the importance of virtual offices, virtual exhibitions and virtually being places, high-tailed it to Burma and Langkawi where he turned brown with envy at missing this year’s art world highlight. Z/yen’s guests allegedly made appreciative murmurs through mouthfuls of Jo Middleton’s cooking about Den Phillips’ photographs and Vanessa Williams’ driftwood sculptures. It is rumoured that some folks even purchased a few works. Needless to say, having heard that the canapés were not so bad, this virtual correspondent will provide even better coverage next year, or at least bring back some south-east Asian elephant dung in time for the show.

Little Bits Make A Lot Of Quanta

Sticking his neck out even further than usual, Michael Mainelli has become heavily involved in working on computing’s next generation (no rekkie jokes) – the quantum computer.

Michael is working with a few leading players in R&D and finance on developments in quantum computing and, more likely to occur rapidly, quantum cryptography. Currently the team is examining a prototype secure quantum network for implementation in one financial market next year. Forced to explain the upside-down world of quantum physics, Michael has written his most obscure paper to date, and that’s saying something – maybe it’s because this time he knows something about what he’s doing.

Z/Yen is offering free paper (covered on one side with portions of Michael’s work) to any insomniac clients and friends. Just ask Jane Beazley for a copy.