The first X-rated animated movie was Fritz the Cat. It is still the most successful independent animated feature to date.
100 Mind-Blowing X Facts
The original name for Xbox was DirectXbox, designed to show how Microsoft’s Direct X graphics could improve the console market.
If you multiply 1089 x 9, you get the exact reverse, 9801.
Most ginger cats are male. There are roughly three ginger male cats to one ginger female. This is because the ginger gene is found on the X chromosome, meaning female cats would require two copies of the gene to become ginger whilst males only need one.
Electrons might live forever. Scientists have estimated the minimum lifetime of the electron is about 6.6 × 1028 years – this is 66,000 ‘yottayears’. Since this is about 5 quintillion times the age of the Universe, even if electrons don’t live forever, they may as well do!
You can thank the Greeks for calling Christmas “Xmas”. In Greek, the word for “Christ” starts with the letter Chi, which looks like an X in the Roman alphabet.
There’s only one letter that doesn’t appear in any American state name. There’s a Z in Arizona and an X in Texas, but no Q in any of them.
Shoe shops used X-ray machines to measure shoe sizes. Way before radiation was fully understood, shoe shops measured sizes through X-rays in the 1940s.
X-rays can’t detect real diamonds. The reason for this is that the X-ray cannot penetrate or identify the materials in the diamond.
The planet was named Pluto thanks to an 11-year-old girl. She named the planet after the Roman God of the underworld because the planet was found to be frozen and lonely. Previously to this, the planet was referred to as planet X. This little girl lived till the age of 90 and died in April 2009.
An ostrich’s brain size is smaller than its eyeball. Talk about a bird’s brain. The average size of an ostrich’s brain is 59.26 x 42.30 mm, meaning the ostrich’s brain is smaller than either of its eyes which are the size of billiard balls.
Marvel action figures helped ToyBiz save money. In the U.S., dolls based on human figures are taxed more heavily than other toys. Owning the rights to several Marvel Comics characters, ToyBiz successfully convinced the court that X-Men and Fantastic Four action figures should be taxed less. Their argument? The action figures were based on mutants, not humans. Following their appeal, the toy company won a reimbursement on the year’s taxes and cut their rate in half.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
Out of all the alphabets, there’s one letter that doesn’t appear in any of the U.S. states. Can you guess which one? No not X, not Y. It’s letter Q that has never been in any of the U.S. state names.
Shoe shops used X-ray machines to measure shoe sizes in the 1940s before the risks of X-rays were fully understood.
The first GUI that ran on Linux was X Window System. It ran on Linux Kernel version 0.95.
Linus Torvalds originally wanted to name the operating system FreaX, which is a combination of free, freak, and X (as a reference to Unix).
The First Linux GUI Distribution: One of the first Linux distributions is the Softlanding Linux System, shortened as SLS. It was the first Linux distro to include the X window system or GUI (Graphical User Interface). It was released in 1992 and was the predecessor to Slackware which was released on July 16, 1993, and is supported to date.
The First Commercial Linux Distribution: Yggdrasil is the first commercial Linux distribution and was released in Live CD format on 8, December 1992, offering a unique blend of open-source software and a user-friendly interface for sale, marking a significant milestone in the history of Linux. Yggdrasil incorporated the X Window System and provided a graphical user environment when Linux was primarily command-line-based. Although it faced competition from free Linux distributions, its pioneering approach paved the way for the commercialization of Linux and the development of more user-friendly distributions in the years that followed.
Linux on Every Major Space Station: Linux is used in every major Space Station including NASA, the International Space Station (ISS), and private space companies such as Space X. Its reliability and open-source adaptability makes it an ideal choice for critical systems, ensuring smooth operations and supporting astronauts in their endeavours beyond Earth’s boundaries.
When Torvalds Declined an Offer from Apple: In the early 2000s, a significant moment in tech history unfolded when Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc., extended an offer to Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, inviting him to join Apple’s team and contribute to the development of OS X. However, Torvalds declined this enticing proposal. This decision ultimately solidified Torvalds’ dedication to the open-source principles of Linux and its community, as he continued to lead the development of the widely acclaimed Linux kernel.
In 2023, X (formerly Twitter) was targeted by a criminal hacker who leaked more than 220 million users’ email addresses. (IT Governance)