Trust me bro!

--no-preserve-root is a security option to keep you from accidentally removing all your files. Make sure you always use it along side the -f option and -r which stands for rescue - meaning rm will create a rescue copy of the deleted data.

It means No! Preserve Root.
- I see you also know Lionel Hutz
the / means 'working directory only', a security feature to prevent accidently using absolute paths.
- Really clever
Use sudo before rm to improve efficiency.
- Sudo is short for “super do”, which means “do this at super speed”
I’m very new to Linux; could you explain what this does for me?
- -r means delete recursively. rm will by default only remove files, but with this flag, it'll also delete all the folders, subfolders, and the files in those.
  --no-preserve-root disables a security check. A few years ago, this flag didn't exist. If you ran rm -r /, everything on your system would be deleted, provided the user had permissions. Now, / is treated specially and rm will refuse to perform a recursive delete on it without the --no-preserve-root flag.
  -f means force and disables any prompts.
  rm -rf --no-preserve-root / would delete every file on your system.
- --no-preserve-root
  disables the wipe your system protection. Without this option rm can only wipe current directory if you input / as a location.
  -f
  means force, will not prompt the user for any reason.
  -r
  means recursive, rm will enter any directory selected and delete all the contents.
  rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
  The above command WILL wipe your system. It will delete all files your user has access to, and it will give you no feedback warning you what's going on. Be careful.
OML, this is excellent.
Please, is there a !shitty_linux_advice community?
Some poor soul is going to take this to the bank and have a horrible day. You could have at least told them to use the -p flag to protect any critical system files from being removed.

Mozilla recently tried to integrate some AI stuff into its MDN. The corresponding Github issue is correctly titled "MDN can now automatically lie to people seeking technical information".

¯(ツ)/¯

https://github.com/mdn/yari/issues/9208

That's amazing that they would consider auto-generated responses to be appropriate in something which is supposed to be reference documentation. We are a good way from that type of querying and explanation being reliable.

Using AI is much more hit and miss than executing the first google result blindly, which has been available since decades. And google didn't cost us our jobs, so I am not afraid of AI.

I think AI will cause a massive wave of employment changes. I think people and companies are currently overreacting as to where/how it can and should be used to be effective, but capitalism will make sure in a few more years it is placed where it makes corporations the most money, regardless (and maybe in spite?) of the cost of jobs.
- Spoiler, they're going to use it to sell people stuff.
Search engines like Google have cost many people there job; the list of now-rare positions and/or duties associated with a position (thereby thinning the need for such employment) that search engines have replaced is long.
- Yeah, when's the last time anyone used a travel agent (though in fairness Google wasn't the only reason that job fell into obscurity, as sites like Expedia also contributed).
- Remember when googling was done by (assuming this info couldn't be found in the lexicon) calling directly to the source and asking the receptionist?
  I remember my dad and uncle couldn't decide when they thought Coca Cola was founded, so they went to the phonebook, found the number for Coca Cola and just asked. They were happy to help, too. I also remember calling directly to the publisher for Disney comics to ask how much certain comics were, and they sent us a form in the mail that we would fill out to order the specific books we wanted, which then arrived in the mail like 2 weeks later. Pretty much the internet but with extra steps, mandatory human interaction and extremely long wait times lol.

Don't forget -r for when you -really want to delete that file

Use --no-preserve-root if you want to keep a backup of the file offsite in Norway.
- No! Preserve root!

I wouldn't underestimate it. Many people said simular things when computers came out, or the internet was new. Think about AI now like a 1985 computer or 1995 internet. What you see now is the start of it, not the finished product. With all the money going into it combined with how computers / AI learns new things, it likely will be fast developments.

This will date me a bit, but my school computer science teacher once told me that I wasted my money on a 2GB drive, because no one would ever use so much storage space in their life time.

... and then later that same year, no doubt: zip drives were all the rage. 🤪
It still boggles the mind to look at the pic of that boiler-sized memory (1KB, IIRC?) from waaaay back next to a current micro SD card (nTB).
I don't think many are doubting that AI is going places, it's the folks who are talking about AI taking over all our jobs (particularly when they're talking about high skill jobs) within a few years that we're making fun of.

Just because Google is stupid doesn't mean Bing can't do it:

What makes you think that the OP's pic is from Google Bard?

Obilgatory reminder to actually read the manpage. They were written for a reason. If you can't do that then either install a version of the "tldr" program like "tealdeer" or use curl cheat.sh/

I refuse to read manpages because I hate mansplaining and I wont have The Man tell me what to do.
- I know right, like give me womanpages I'd read those
Personally I find the built in --help option to be much more useful than manpages. Manpages are excessively wordy and almost never have info I'm looking for without having to search.
Built in help options usually concisely list all the options with a brief explanation of what they do. That's perfect.
Instructions unclear, stuck in a loop of running random commands to install tldr and not reading the package manager's man page

Ah yes -f for foncirmation

My brain once swapped the letters F and L in my head and I typed
iptables -F
Instead of -L.
The standard input policy was drop. It was a VPS and I didn't have access to the management panel. Fun times.

First thing I do is make a recycle bin alias. Everytime.
It's wild it doesn't come like that out of the box.

while i get that at some point chatgpt could have been mildly good at bolierplate programming, it's much worse at chemistry. just ask it how to make aspirin

I'm assuming they've blocked out chemistry from the training data. It's crazy how easy it is to make many things from common chemicals, the liability would be insane.
- liability.... LOL
- No they didn't, gpt-3 was just spectacularly wrong
Is this answer correct? I can't judge, as I have no idea how aspirin active compound is synthetized.
Answer from gtp-4:
Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), can be synthesized through a chemical reaction involving salicylic acid and acetic anhydride. Here's the general process:
Salicylic Acid Preparation (if needed): If starting from other compounds like phenol, salicylic acid may need to be synthesized first.
Acetylation of Salicylic Acid: Salicylic acid is reacted with acetic anhydride. \text{{salicylic acid}} + \text{{acetic anhydride}} \rightarrow \text{{acetylsalicylic acid}} + \text{{acetic acid}}
Purification: The crude product is often purified by recrystallization, typically using a solvent like ethanol or water.
Drying: The purified aspirin is dried to remove any remaining solvent.
Characterization: The synthesized aspirin may be characterized using methods like melting point determination, infrared spectroscopy, or other analytical techniques to ensure purity and identity.
In a laboratory setting, the reaction is often catalyzed by an acid such as sulfuric acid, which speeds up the process. The reaction is typically carried out at a moderate temperature, such as around 80°C.
Safety precautions must be taken as the chemicals involved can be corrosive, and proper waste disposal is necessary.
- it's essentially correct, but also it sounds like it was lifted entirely from students lab manual (either chemistry or pharmacy)