All valid points.

However, the actual capabilities of the AIs might not matter with respect to job displacement, since the people making the hiring decisions are absorbing the marketing hype but not using the tools.

Even if folks are still hired, they might experience second order effects like increased job stress and burnout: https://fortune.com/2026/02/10/ai-future-of-work-white-collar-employees-technology-productivity-burnout-research-uc-berkeley/

I’m rather glad that I’m reaching the end of my career and not trying to break into the market as a junior software engineer.

Indeed, it’s amazing how much stuff was / is out there in the open.

Hobbyist use of unencrypted protocols like telnet can be very educational, and the other commenter is right that not everything needs to be encrypted, especially within the confines of a homelab, for instance.

My support for ending telnet use is much more about things like IoT systems, industrial hardware and so on talking in the clear and being vulnerable to compromise.

This isn’t about telnet, per se, but is a good example of the problem: https://news.satnews.com/2026/02/04/russia-intercepts-europes-key-satellites-placing-nato-satellite-at-risk/

LodeMike, I’m curious about something. What’s the latest set of AI models and tools you’ve used personally? Have you used Opus 4.5 or 4.6, for instance?

I am not disagreeing with the points you’ve made, but it’s been my experience that the increase in capabilities over the last six months has been so rapid that it’s hard to realistically evaluate what the current frontier models are capable of unless you’ve uused them meaningfully and with some frequency.

I’d welcome your perspective.

Good point. I was referring more to telnetd as an unencrypted client-server protocol, typically to port 23. Often unauthenticated, ripe for MITM attacks.

That needs to end.

I share the author’s nostalgia for Telnet, as a kid who spent many lost hours trying to telnet into “interesting things” at the dawn of the internet. It is, however, long past time for the protocol to die and force ancient and insecure things to be retired. Thus might just do it.

Thanks for the clickbait headline. TL;DR - “custom firmware project resurrects the Nokia N8, transforming it from a drawer-dwelling relic into a functional device.”