One might think that [Da_Rius]’s mostly 3D printed wire stripper would count its insulation-shearing blades among the small number of metal parts required, but that turns out to not be the case. The blades are actually printed in PLA, seem to work just fine for this purpose. (We imagine they need somewhat frequent replacement, but still.)

Proper wire strippers are one of the most useful tools for a budding electronics enthusiast, because stripping hookup wire is a common task and purpose-built strippers make for quick and consistent results.

As far as tools go they are neither particularly expensive nor difficult to source, but making one’s own has a certain appeal to it. The process of assembling the tool is doubtless a rewarding one, and it looks like it results in a pretty good conversation starter if nothing else.

As mentioned, the tool is mostly 3D printed and does require some metal parts: fasteners, heat-set inserts, and a couple springs. Metal nuts and heat-set inserts are easy enough to obtain, but springs of particular size and shape are a bit trickier.

It is perfectly possible to make custom springs, and as it happens [Da_Rius] already has that covered with a separate project for using a hex key and printed jig to make exactly the right shapes and sizes from pre-tempered spring wire.

Mate Rimac, the founder of Croatian electric vehicle maker Rimac Group, started working on electric robotaxis seven years ago. Now, part of his vision is coming to fruition through a strategic partnership between Uber, Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai, and his own robotaxi startup Verne.

The three companies announced plans Thursday to launch a commercial robotaxi service in Europe, starting in Zagreb, Croatia. Pony.ai will supply the autonomous driving system and a robotaxi called the Arcfox Alpha T5 that was developed with Chinese automaker BAIC. Verne will own and operate the fleet, and Uber will provide its vast ride-hailing network.

The ride-hailing giant also indicated it intends to invest an undisclosed amount into Verne and support future expansion as a strategic partner.

The companies didn’t provide a specific launch date for the commercial service, though on-road testing in Zagreb — where Rimac Group is based — is already underway.

Verne doesn’t have the same name recognition as Waymo or Tesla — at least not in the United States. But it has the same outsized ambitions.

Verne started in 2019 as a project called Project 3 Mobility (or P3) within Rimac Group, a growing ecosystem of companies that includes hypercar maker Rimac Bugatti, Rimac Energy, and Rimac Technology. Mate Rimac holds a 23% stake in the group.

There were occasional updates about the project, but it wasn’t until July 2024 — when Verne launched with 100 million euros in funding — that the public got a more detailed look at its plans.

Rimac’s vision has always been for Verne to operate an urban robotaxi service with purpose-built two-seater electric vehicles. That might sound like an odd mission for the person behind the Nevera, an electric hypercar that starts around $2.2 million. But as he explained to this reporter a couple of years ago, Rimac was never interested in making a high-volume EV that humans would drive — precisely because he believes that autonomous vehicle technology will make that business obsolete.

“It will take a while, but it’s coming; I’m sure about that,” he’d told me at the time.

Verne isn’t developing its own self-driving system. Instead, the company is focused on the urban electric vehicle, the ride-hailing app, and the back-end infrastructure to manage the fleet, including cleaning and maintenance.

Verne plans to produce its robotaxi EVs at a new factory in Lučko, Croatia, expected to begin operations later this year.

Verne hasn’t launched the two seaters yet, nor did it provide an update on the vehicles in its announcement with Uber and Pony.ai. The company said in November that it had produced and tested 60 verification prototypes.

For now, the Verne robotaxi service will use the Pony.ai-BAIC vehicle, the Arcfox Alpha T5. Users will be able to hail one via Uber as well as through Verne’s own app.

Verne is starting small with its commercial launch, but it has plans to scale to a “fleet of thousands of robotaxis over the next few years,” according to Thursday’s announcement. And its aspirations go far beyond the borders of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia and home to Rimac Group.

“Europe needs autonomous mobility that can move from testing to a real service,” said Verne CEO Marko Pejkovic, in a statement. “At Verne, we are bringing together the technology, platform, and operational capabilities required to make this a reality, starting in Zagreb before expanding to new markets.”

The approach of a new school year conjures images of teachers preparing their classrooms and principals greeting students as they walk through the doors on the first day of classes.

But federal data shows that the education jobs that will see the most growth over a decade are supporting roles like substitute teachers, therapists and technologists.

The findings are bracketed by changes in student enrollment and the ending of federal school emergency funds, which are reshaping school districts’ staffing outlooks. School districts across the country continue to grapple with millions in budget deficits, leading to hundreds of job cuts in some cases.

Recent reports show that schools are likely to struggle to fill the most in-demand roles.

Highest-Growth Areas

Looking at 10 education roles that will gain the most net jobs by 2034, short-term substitute teachers top the overall rankings with an increase of more than 10,000.

Malia Hite says that Utah is among the states that will see an increase in jobs for teacher assistants and paraeducators, who will specifically support student behavior and early literacy, thanks to an infusion of state and federal funds. Hite serves as the Utah State Board of Education’s executive coordinator of education licensing.

She adds the caveat that it’s tough to attract candidates to those roles, particularly in early childhood education — a problem felt strongly around the country.

“However, I will say that those positions, because those positions are typically an entry-level position with a low wage or part-time, they’re hard positions to fill,” Hite says. “Even in the current job market, [where] it’s hard to find positions, we’re still seeing openings in our paraeducator job market statewide. Some of them are making $9 an hour, so why would I do that when I can go somewhere else and make $15 in an entry-level position?”

Hite is cautious when talking about education growth overall because it’s not equal among sectors. Increased demand is expected for non-teacher and non-administrator staff like speech language pathologists, social workers and occupational therapists, she says.

“This is now our second year that we’ve seen a decrease of student enrollment, and so that means we need fewer teachers, there’s less funding, and so we’re seeing a lot of things like schools close,” she explains. “So in that way, there’s no way that education jobs are going to grow.”

A report from the Consortium for School Networking, a professional organization for K-12 tech leaders, found that schools struggle to retain IT staff across all specialities and levels. Among school leaders that it polled, 16 percent said they were in danger of losing IT staff due to the winding down of federal relief money that was allocated to schools during the pandemic.

Health Workers In Demand

The rest of the list, however, is filled by health therapy roles and technology roles. A recent analysis by staffing company ProTherapy predicts physical therapist assistants, speech-language pathologists and physical therapists will be the most in-demand education jobs of 2026 and continue to see double-digit percentage growth.

Schools employ physical therapists and assistants to ensure that students with disabilities can participate in school activities to the fullest extent, while speech language pathologists help students with communication disorders.

Dakota Long, who headed ProTherapy’s 2026 School Workforce Demand Index, says these jobs are growing in demand because schools are aiming to identify students with disabilities and set up interventions as early as possible, as early as age 3 in some schools.

But another factor in the demand for these specialists – physical therapist assistants, in particular – is the job market they are graduating into.

While teacher graduates are overwhelmingly likely to work in the classroom, newly minted health care workers can be wooed by jobs in hospitals, clinics and home health agencies in addition to schools.

“From my perspective in working with schools, they’re wanting to identify those things early on,” Long says, “that way they can provide the best services for these kiddos before it gets to age 7, 8, and then they realize, ‘Oh gosh, we could have been supplying these services earlier.’ So you have early intervention, more kiddos needing these services, but then employees that could be taking on these roles have a lot of different options, as well.”

Hite says that while non-teacher jobs are expected to increase in Utah, though realistically not by as much as ProTherapy’s projections, some nuance is required when looking at what the growth rates mean.

“If I look at the subsector of audiologist, we had two [full-time employees] six years ago, and now we have 11,” she says, an increase of more than five-fold. “We’re talking about 10 people.”

from the ruh-roh dept

It’s somewhat stunning to realize that the United States has been operating with Surgeon Generals that are merely “acting” in the role or “performing the duties of” since January 20th of 2025. The last Senate-confirmed SG was Dr. Vivek Murthy. The current nominee from the Trump/Kennedy team is Dr. Casey Means. This nomination has been languishing since May of last year. There has been plenty of pushback on her, due largely to her current profession as “wellness influencer” and the fact that she didn’t complete her residency and doesn’t have a license to practice in any of our 50 states.

She recently went before the Senate for her confirmation hearing and it, um, didn’t go all that well. As a result, it appears her nomination is very much in trouble. There are several GOP senators who are publicly expressing doubts about her, perhaps none more important then Bill Cassidy.

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) all expressed concern in a confirmation hearing last month about her potential role and appear to remain doubtful. Just one of those senators may be enough to block her nomination from advancing beyond the Senate Health Committee.

Afterward, Senators Collins and Murkowski both said they still had questions. Murkowski also said she had “strong reservations” about Means’ nomination and that, as of last week, that opinion hadn’t changed, according to the Post.

So why did the confirmation hearing go so poorly? For some reasons you’d expect, and some you probably didn’t. Means mostly ducked questions about vaccines, giving interested senators no idea where she actually lands on the issue. There were also perfectly reasonable questions about her qualifications, given that she is not currently a practicing doctor of any kind. In her influencer career, she has mirrored much of what RFK Jr. has claimed about diet and exercise being the cure to most health issues, all while hocking your stereotypical supplements and magic potions.

But then there are the drugs and the lunar-worship.

A book that she co-authored with her brother, titled Good Energy, considered by some to be the “MAHA bible,” contains a chapter titled, “Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.” She has also drawn criticism for writing about taking magic mushrooms, consulting a “spiritual medium,” and participating in “full moon ceremonies.”

I won’t say I’m against the use of psychedelics generally, but I typically don’t love hearing about how great they are from my doctor.

As we’ve talked about before, it has become very clear that Kennedy simply lied a whole bunch in his own confirmation hearings as to what he would do as Secretary at HHS, particularly when it comes to vaccines. The thing about lying to people like Bill Cassidy, though, is now Kennedy needs him to confirm his hand-picked ally for Surgeon General.

And unless Cassidy is far stupider than I think he is, you have to believe he isn’t going to let Lucy pull the football away at the last moment for a second time.

Filed Under: bill cassidy, casey means, lisa murkowski, rfk jr., surgeon general, susan collins, thom tillis

Samsung is expanding its dominance in the premium TV category with the official reveal of its 2026 Neo QLED 4K TV lineup, alongside a broader Mini LED TV range aimed at hitting more price points. The new Neo QLED series builds on Samsung’s Mini LED backlighting platform with updated AI-powered picture processing, refined local dimming, and an expanded smart TV ecosystem designed to compete directly with OLED and high-end LED rivals.

For 2026, Samsung is clearly doubling down on Neo QLED as its flagship 4K TV technology, positioning these models as the sweet spot between performance and price. With confirmed pricing, upgraded AI features, and deeper integration of its smart platform, the new lineup is engineered to appeal to both home theater buyers and mainstream shoppers who want high brightness, strong HDR performance, and a feature set that doesn’t feel stripped down.

What Is Samsung Neo QLED and Mini LED Technology

Samsung’s Neo QLED TVs are LCD-based displays that combine Mini LED full array backlighting with Quantum Dot technology. Quantum Dots enhance color range and accuracy, while Mini LED backlighting enables more precise light control, especially when rendering bright objects against dark backgrounds. When paired with HDR formats like Samsung’s HDR10+, this combination improves both color volume and overall dynamic range.

Samsung 2026 Neo QLED 4K TV Lineup 

For 2026, Samsung is offering two Neo QLED series, the QN80H and QN70H. Both feature 4K UHD resolution, the Tizen smart TV platform, expanded gaming support, and Samsung’s Vision AI Companion.

Screen sizes for the QN80H series range from 55 to 100 inches, while the QN70H series spans 43 to 85 inches. Between the two, there’s a size that fits just about any room and viewing distance without forcing you into a compromise.

Key Features

Both series are built to deliver a cinematic 4K UHD experience, using AI upscaling to enhance everything you watch with scene-by-scene clarity. The QN80H is powered by Samsung’s NQ4 AI Gen2 Processor, while the QN70H uses the NQ4 AI Processor, both designed to refine detail, contrast, and overall image precision.

Features like Real Depth Enhancer help separate foreground elements for a more three-dimensional look, improving focus on the main subject. AI Customization Mode takes things a step further, allowing users to select preferred picture settings by genre during setup, with the TV automatically adjusting image quality in real time based on detected content.

For speech clarity, the Samsung Neo QLED 4K TVs incorporate the Active Voice Amplifier. This boosts dialogue or key sound effects. Also, the QN80H series incorporates Dolby Atmos, which provides more sound immersion. 

Also, with Q Symphony, the QN80H and QN70H can be combined with compatible Samsung soundbars and Wi-Fi speakers to operate as a single, coordinated sound system rather than isolated components.

Gaming support is extensive with Samsung’s Gaming Hub, AI Auto Game Mode, Cloud Gaming, and Motion Xceleration on both series.

Samsung’s Vision AI experience, anchored by the Perplexity TV App, takes AI on TVs beyond simple voice commands or video enhancements by combining AI audio/video processing, Bixby voice control, Tizen Smart TV integration, and Knox Security into a single, seamless ecosystem.

Comparison

Keep in mind that while the QN80H and QN70H share many core features, there are some key differences. We’ve included a detailed comparison chart below to make those distinctions easier to see.

The Bottom Line 

Samsung’s 2026 Neo QLED 4K lineup makes a very clear statement: 4K is the priority, not 8K. With improved AI processing, Mini LED backlighting, and Quantum Dot color, these models focus on delivering higher brightness, better contrast control, and more consistent real-world performance across a wide range of screen sizes. Add in strong gaming support and a mature smart platform, and you’re looking at TVs that cover both home theater and everyday streaming without feeling compromised.

What’s missing? No 8K options in this tier, and if you want Samsung’s absolute best display tech, you’ll need to step up to Micro RGB LED or MicroLED—and pay accordingly. On the flip side, if these stretch your budget, Samsung’s Mini LED models offer a more affordable alternative with fewer refinements. The Neo QLED range sits right in the middle: ideal for buyers who want premium performance, large-screen flexibility up to 100 inches, and modern features without venturing into ultra-luxury pricing.

Availability & Pricing

Samsung’s 2026 Neo QLED 4K TVs are available now at the following prices:

QN80H Series

 QN70H Series

For more information, visit the Samsung Product Page.

Related Reading:

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) promise to hide your online activities from prying eyes, but still need to gather some information to work properly.

Understanding exactly what data a VPN collects – and why – can help you decide whether a VPN service truly protects your privacy or simply adds another unwanted layer of surveillance.

From activity logs to the different policy types, we’ll walk you through the typical categories of logs a VPN provider might keep. We’ll explain what a “no-logs” VPN really means, highlight when a VPN’s data collection becomes too risky, and provide you with some practical tips for picking a trustworthy VPN provider.

Article continues below

What your VPN needs to collect

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Engineers Aren’t Bad at Communication. They’re Just Speaking to the Wrong Audience.

There’s a persistent myth that engineers are bad communicators. In my experience, that’s not true.

Engineers are often excellent communicators—inside their domain. We’re precise. We’re logical. We structure arguments clearly. We define terms. We reason from constraints.

The breakdown happens when the audience changes.

We’re used to speaking in highly technical language, surrounded by people who share our vocabulary. In that environment, shorthand and jargon are efficient. But outside that bubble, when talking to executives, product managers, marketing teams, or customers, that same precision can be confusing.

The problem isn’t that we can’t communicate. It’s that we forget to translate.

If you’ve ever explained a critical issue or error to a non-technical stakeholder, you’ve probably experienced this: You give a technically accurate explanation. They leave either more confused than before, or more alarmed than necessary.

Suddenly you’re spending more time clarifying your explanation than fixing the issue.

Under pressure, we default to what we know best—technical detail. But detail without context creates cognitive overload. The listener can’t tell what matters, what’s normal, and what’s dangerous.

That’s when the “engineers can’t communicate” narrative shows up.

In reality, we just skipped the translation step.

The Writing Shortcut

One of the simplest ways to improve written communication today is surprisingly easy: Run your explanation through an AI model and ask, “would this make sense to a non-technical audience? Where would someone get confused?”

You can also say:

• “Rewrite this for an executive audience.”
• “What analogy would help explain this?”
• “Simplify this without losing accuracy.”

Large language models are particularly good at identifying jargon and offering alternative framings. They’re essentially translation assistants.

Analogies are especially powerful. If you’re explaining system latency, compare it to traffic congestion. If you’re describing technical debt, compare it to skipping maintenance on a house. If you’re explaining distributed systems, try using supply chain examples.

The goal isn’t to “dumb it down.” It’s to map the unfamiliar onto something familiar.

Before sending an email or report, ask yourself:

• Does this audience need to understand the mechanism, or just impact?
• Does this explanation help them make a decision?
• Have I defined terms they might not know?

Translation When Speaking

When speaking—especially in meetings or presentations—most engineers have one predictable habit: We speak too fast.

Nerves speed us up. Speed causes filler words. Filler words dilute authority.

To prevent that, follow a simple rule: Speak 10 to 15 percent slower than feels natural.

Slowing down cuts down the number of times you say “um” and “uh”, gives you time to think, makes you sound more confident, and gives the listener time to process.

Another rule: Say only what the audience needs to move forward.

Explain just enough for the person to make a decision. If you overload someone with implementation details when they only need tradeoffs, you’ve made their job harder.

The Real Skill

The key skill in communication is audience awareness.

The same engineer who can clearly explain a concurrency bug to a peer can absolutely explain system risk to an executive. The difference is framing, vocabulary, and context. Not intelligence.

In the age of AI, where code generation is increasingly commoditized, the ability to translate complexity into clarity is becoming a defining advantage.

Engineers aren’t bad communicators. We just have to remember that outside our bubble, translation is part of the job.

—Brian

Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket 100 years ago, but his legacy still has relevant lessons for today’s engineers. Although Goddard’s headstrong confidence in his ideas helped bring about the breakthrough, it later became an obstacle in what systems engineer Guru Madhavan calls “the alpha trap.” Madhavan writes: “We love to celebrate the lone genius, yet we depend on teams to bring the flame of genius to the people.”

Read more here.

For Communications of the ACM, two Microsoft engineers propose a model for software engineering in the age of AI: Making the growth of early-in-career developers an explicit organizational goal. Without hiring early-career workers, the profession’s talent pipeline will eventually dry up. So, they argue, companies must hire them and develop talent, even if that comes with a short-term dip in productivity.

Read more here.

Looking for a job? Last year, IEEE Industry Engagement hosted its first virtual career fair to connect recruiters and young professionals. Several more career fairs are now planned, including two upcoming regional events and a global career fair in June. At these fairs, you can participate in interactive sessions, chat with recruiters, and experience video interviews.

Read more here.

Pepper, a New York-based technology platform for independent food distributors, has acquired Alima, a Y Combinator-backed startup that built ordering and procurement software for small food distributors in Latin America. The deal, announced on Tuesday with no disclosed financial terms, brings Alima’s two cofounders into Pepper’s leadership team and extends the company’s push into AI-driven product content and data infrastructure for an industry that still runs largely on phone calls, faxes, and personal relationships.

Jorge Vizcayno, Alima’s chief executive, will lead Pepper’s product content platform and data infrastructure, which uses AI to match and enrich product catalogues at scale. Blanca Espinosa, Alima’s chief marketing officer and cofounder, will head customer implementation, applying AI tooling to the onboarding process that has historically been one of the most friction-heavy parts of selling software to food distributors.

Two companies, one thesis

The acquisition is small in isolation but revealing in what it says about where vertical software for food distribution is heading. Pepper and Alima were built on the same premise: that independent food distributors, who collectively account for more than two-thirds of food distribution in North America and handle over $1.4 trillion in annual sales, are woefully underserved by technology.

Alima, founded in 2021, tackled the problem from the Latin American side, where the gap is even wider. More than 85 per cent of B2B food suppliers and distributors in the region lack digital sales capabilities, according to the company’s own estimates. Alima built an ordering platform for small and mid-sized distributors, focusing initially on fresh produce procurement in Mexico. The company went through Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 batch and raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Soma Capital, YC, The Dorm Room Fund, and angel investors.

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Pepper, meanwhile, has grown into a broader platform covering ordering, sales and marketing, accounts receivable, and embedded payments for US-based food distributors. The company has raised $99 million across three rounds, most recently a $50 million Series C in February led by Lead Edge Capital, with participation from ICONIQ, Index Ventures, Greylock, Harmony Partners, and Interplay. It now serves more than 500 distributors representing approximately $30 billion in annual gross merchandise volume.

The AI angle

The strategic logic of the deal centres on product content, the sprawling, fragmented catalogues that food distributors must manage across thousands of SKUs from hundreds of suppliers. In food distribution, product data is notoriously messy: item descriptions vary between suppliers, packaging formats differ by region, and pricing changes frequently. Pepper has been building AI systems to match and enrich this data automatically, and Vizcayno’s experience building similar infrastructure for Latin American distributors makes the acquisition a talent and technology play as much as a market expansion one.

Espinosa’s role is equally telling. Customer implementation, the process of getting a distributor onto a new technology platform, is where many vertical SaaS companies lose deals. Distributors often have limited technical staff, legacy systems that resist integration, and operations that cannot afford downtime during a migration. Pepper is betting that AI-assisted onboarding can compress what has traditionally been a months-long process, and Espinosa’s background in customer acquisition at Alima positions her to lead that effort.

This is Pepper’s second acquisition in seven months. In August 2025, it acquired Kimelo, a distribution toolset that included a restaurant supply ordering app. The pace suggests Pepper is consolidating a fragmented market of small vertical tools into a single platform, a playbook familiar from other industries but still relatively early in food distribution.

A $1.4 trillion market, still on paper

The broader context is that food distribution technology remains in its early innings despite its enormous addressable market. Independent distributors are the backbone of the food supply chain, connecting farms and manufacturers to the restaurants, grocery stores, and institutions that feed people. Yet the industry’s technology adoption lags far behind comparable sectors like logistics, retail, and financial services.

Pepper’s investor list, which includes Index Ventures and Greylock, signals that serious venture capital is flowing into the space. The $50 million Series C in February valued the company at an undisclosed figure but positioned it as the category leader in a market where no dominant platform has yet emerged. The Alima acquisition adds Latin American domain expertise and a bilingual founding team to a company that will likely need to expand beyond the US to justify its funding trajectory.

For Alima’s founders, the framing is pragmatic. Vizcayno described the acquisition as the most honest continuation of Alima’s journey. Whether that honesty reflects strategic alignment or the practical reality that a $1.5 million seed-stage startup in a difficult Latin American market found a faster path to impact inside a better-funded platform is, ultimately, the same thing said two different ways.