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The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

learncodethehardway.org

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Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#3

Post by jimmyjim »

> The next warning is stay off IRC or other places where "hackers" hang out. They think it's funny to hand you commands that can destroy your computer. The command rm -rf / is a classic that you must never type. Just avoid them. If you need help, make sure you get it from someone you trust not from random idiots on the internet.

I don't really agree with that. I know for sure that popular channels in OFTC and Freenode are monitored by very smart and responsible people that would never let this happen. In my many years on IRC I have not seen a single novice guy looking for help actually get had by someone intentionally trying to mislead/screw over.

I would instead encourage novices to read this: http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#usefora ('How To Ask Questions The Smart Way: Web and IRC forums directed towards newbies often give the quickest response')

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#6

Post by burgerbrain »

jimmyjim wrote: post #3

> The next warning is stay off IRC or other places where "hackers" hang out. They think it's funny to hand you commands that can destroy your computer. The command rm -rf / is a classic that you must never type. Just avoid them. If you need help, make sure you get it from someone you trust not from random idiots on the internet. I don't really agree with that. I know for sure that popular channels in OFTC and Freenod…

I think the exact opposite advice would actually be more proper. Newbies probably don't often even know about IRC, but it can be a great way to get exposed to some really cool stuff.

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#8

Post by Mithrandir »

jimmyjim wrote: post #3

> The next warning is stay off IRC or other places where "hackers" hang out. They think it's funny to hand you commands that can destroy your computer. The command rm -rf / is a classic that you must never type. Just avoid them. If you need help, make sure you get it from someone you trust not from random idiots on the internet. I don't really agree with that. I know for sure that popular channels in OFTC and Freenod…

I have seen on some IRCs people writing 'sudo rm -rf /*" etc. (not as advice, but as a joke,) but that person is always promptly kicked out and everyone in the channel tries to warn others.

The author's view is definitely too pessimistic. Most people on IRCs like Freenode aren't evil 'hackers' out to 'hack' you (this reminds me of an episode of Numb3rs.) Other smaller IRC servers can get rowdy, but I've yet to see that on Freenode et al.

I think much better advice would be to not randomly execute crap you see online without knowing what the program is and does, especially in root.

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#9

Post by jseliger »

I just wrote to Zed:

I haven't read past section 0 yet, but I do have a suggestion for people who want to learn how to memorize things faster: use SuperMemo or a modern equivalent, like http://ankisrs.net/ . Such programs use spaced repetition techniques to improve memory speed. I used Anki for improving my French and recommend it. If you'd like to learn more, see http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_woznia... .

Cheers,

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#10

Post by robert_nsu »

I've been watching this for a little while. With powershell, a lot of the *nix commands have been or can be aliased to the windows commands (e.g. ls and Get-ChildItem). Judging from his notes so far, he isn't taking advantage of this, but hopefully he will.
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