Would have to be cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid > /dev/null
You can't pipe to a file, only to programs, and since /dev/null isn't an executable your command will simply give an error.
To make it more clear, consider using dd, which lets you explicitly specify an input and output file. For example: dd if=/proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid of=/dev/sda1 wait shit that wasn't the right output oh god oh fu
dd is just cp but more confusing here.
The only thing dd can do that cp can't is stop ahead of time, which only really matters for infinite files like /dev/random
Absolutely not, quite the opposite actually. However, the end result is close to 100% CPU load, which is good enough for some purposes. Let’s say you want to test the performance of your CPU cooler, or overclock stability, this should good enough. There are also dedicated tools for people with more advanced needs.