Random Xenu...Random Xanadu
Once upon a time (75 million years ago to be more precise) there was an alien galactic ruler named Xenu. Xenu was in charge of all the planets in this part of the galaxy including our own planet Earth, except in those days it was called Teegeeack.
Now Xenu had a problem. All of the 76 planets he controlled were overpopulated. Each planet had on average 178 billion people. He wanted to get rid of all the overpopulation so he had a plan.
Xenu took over complete control with the help of renegades to defeat the good people and the Loyal Officers. Then with the help of psychiatrists he called in billions of people for income tax inspections where they were instead given injections of alcohol and glycol mixed to paralyse them. Then they were put into space planes that looked exactly like DC8s (except they had rocket motors instead of propellers)....
Or, as Orville Reddenbacher used to say, "Yowza yowza yowza."
Project Xanadu® History (lo-res)
INFLUENCE
Project Xanadu was the explicit inspiration for the World Wide Web (see Tim Berners-Lee's original proposal for the World Wide Web), for Lotus Notes (as freely acknowledged by its creator, Ray Ozzie) and for HyperCard (acknowledged by its developer, Bill Atkinson); as well as less-well-known systems, including Microcosm and Hyperwave.
ABOUT THE NAME
About the name: No, we did not get it from Olivia Newton-John. It is an actual place in Mongolia which is described in a poem considered by many the most romantic poem in the English language-- "Kubla Khan" by Coleridge. The poem begins,
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately Pleasure Dome decree, ...
and goes on to describe that eerie and beautiful palace with innuendos of sensuality and madness. This poem's tradition also associates the name "Xanadu" with memory and lost work, because Coleridge said he lost part of the poem due to a mundane interruption. We chose the name "Xanadu", with all these connotations, to represent a magic place of literary memory and freedom, where nothing would be forgotten.
The "freedom" part applies even today: the ruins of of Kublai Khan's actual palace at Xanadu have been placed off limits to Mongolians by the Chinese government, because of its symbolism of Mongolian independence....
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