No, this is a very old joke that uses the fact the command has “fr” in it to trick people about what the command does. Joking aside, here’s what the command actually does:

rm is the command to delete files and folders

-f is the force modifier. This means it’ll keep going even if it encounters problems and just delete as much as it can

-r is the recursive modifier. That means it’ll go down every folder it sees in the target and delete the contents as well, and delete the contents of folders of folders, etc.

/ is the target. This is the root of the filesystem. If you’re used to Windows, that’s like targeting C:.

Put it all together, and this command basically deletes your whole filesystem. A safeguard was put in place a while back due to people meming about this and causing newbies to delete their whole system. Now it won’t work unless you put in --no-preserve-root, which tells rm that yes, you really mean it, please delete my whole system.

/* as the target works around that safeguard, because technically deleting everything in root is not the same as deleting root itself.

This is very much the Linux version of the old tricking gamers to alt+F4 gag.

My favorite was when I was teaching a friend Squad, and we were in a vehicle. I explained you hit the F keys to change seat (which is true), so F1, F2, F3, etc. Noticing that seats 1, 2 and 3 were filled, I then told him he can hold down alt to swap seats faster. He then immediately quits the game xD

And to avoid annoying error messages about preserving the root of the language, add a * at the end. Final command should look like this:

sudo rm -fr /*

When I’m driving, it’s actually unsafe for my car to be operated in that way

being able to consistently and reliably operate the thing without taking your eyes off the road

Considering they’d just spent the previous few questions discussing the visual-first aspect of touchscreens and accessibility issues for the visually impaired, I think that’s exactly what they were talking about.

The generalizations are about completely different devices. They talk about CT machines & automatic defibrillators later.

1st link:

Defectors can expect to receive the six-figure payout if they cross the border with intelligence that helps enhance South Korea’s security.

That… is actually very reasonable, and does not support or diminish your argument.

2nd link: I’m sorry, but DPRK news room doesn’t exactly scream unbiased.

3rd link: The tone and channel name seems comedic at first glance, but I’ll watch it and get back to you. Plenty of comedians doing real journalism these days anyway, so that shouldn’t be a mark against him.

The people who manage to escape NK are a pretty good source. Also, 2 wrongs don’t make a right. It’s perfectly possible for both the US and NK to be in the wrong.