The hottest Standards Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Culture Topics

I Thought SOT666 Was a Standard - It Isn’t.

atomic14 • 173 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. SOT666 is often assumed to be a standard footprint, but it isn’t — different parts can have different pad sizes and pin spacing.
  2. Manufacturers and vendors interpret SOT666 differently, so using the wrong footprint can cause misalignment, soldering issues, or assembly failures.
  3. Always check the component’s datasheet and recommended land pattern (and, if possible, verify with samples or 3D models) before finalizing a PCB footprint.

Bad education is a terrible way to fight inequality

Noahpinion • 23353 implied HN points • 26 Nov 25
🚌 Education Standards
  1. Basic math and reading skills have fallen sharply across the US, with many college entrants unable to do middle-school math or meet basic writing standards, forcing universities to place large numbers in remedial classes.
  2. The decline comes from multiple sources: pandemic learning loss, grade inflation and lowered K–12 standards, elimination of standardized tests, policies like “no zeros,” high absenteeism, and distractions such as phones, making grades a poor signal of real skills.
  3. Relaxing standards in the name of equity — effectively giving students a pass instead of educating them well — is a misguided approach that harms learners and is a counterproductive way to try to reduce inequality.

NeXTWorld Interviews Bud Tribble, One of the NeXT Founders (1994)

Computer Ads from the Past • 1024 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Sun picked NeXT’s OpenStep because it was a shipping, customer-tested object application environment that fit their distributed-object vision and gave a clear time-to-market advantage over building something new or waiting for competitors.
  2. OpenStep is being promoted as an industry standard through bodies like OMG and X/Open, but standardization will be gradual and will require proven implementations; it’s designed to work across languages and CORBA/IDL boundaries for interoperability.
  3. OpenStep will coexist with procedural environments and Windows compatibility on the same desktop, aiming for smooth interoperability (shared imaging, cut/copy/paste, and even a common Dock concept), while NeXT and Sun collaborate on ports and future evolution alongside licensing and platform sales.

ComputerWorld Interviews Lotus' Mitch Kapor (1985)

Computer Ads from the Past • 768 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Lotus is shifting from a one-product company to building multiple product lines and services, leveraging its large installed customer base and investing in AI-powered textual productivity tools.
  2. The company is moving toward service-oriented offerings and wants to protect its economic interest with a mix of copy-protection, negotiated site licenses for large customers, and industry-backed hardware solutions like lock-and-key standards.
  3. Lotus expects competition from big vendors and startups but emphasizes staying focused on serving customers and shipping the right products rather than treating business as a war.

An Interview With Brian Daugherty

ciamweekly • 62 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. CIAM helps make users' day-to-day identity and access flow secure and seamless across devices, apps, and multiple personas.
  2. The CIAM landscape is complex with many protocols and legacy systems, which creates hard choices, maintenance burdens, and organizational resistance to adopting better practices.
  3. LLMs and agentic tools will both simplify CIAM design and implementation and create new trust and security risks, driving rapid changes in protocols and products.
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80 characters? In this economy?

Bite code! • 733 implied HN points • 17 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Keeping lines of code to 80 characters makes it easier for our eyes to read. It helps us quickly find where the next line starts.
  2. Having shorter lines is useful when using multiple tools side by side, like browsers and code editors. It makes coding and comparing changes easier.
  3. Sticking to the 80-character limit can improve programming habits, like using clear variable names and reducing complexity in code. This helps create better overall code.

RISC-V and Post Quantum Cryptography

Fprox’s Substack • 186 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Quantum computers threaten today’s public-key cryptography, so governments and industry are already moving to post-quantum algorithms and rolling out standards and deployments now.
  2. Post-quantum schemes (e.g., Kyber, Dilithium, SPHINCS+, Falcon) rely on heavy math like NTT and Keccak, and they trade off key/signature sizes, signing speed, and verification cost differently.
  3. RISC-V can run PQC today using its vector extensions, but lacks dedicated PQC ISA support; targeted accelerations for NTT and Keccak (and vector crypto extensions) would greatly improve performance and are being explored by the community.

Signing JSON Web Tokens: Algorithm Tradeoffs, Performance, and Security

ciamweekly • 62 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Pick your JWT algorithm based on tradeoffs: HMAC (HS) is very fast and simple but uses a shared secret and cannot provide non-repudiation, while asymmetric algorithms let you separate signing and verification.
  2. Prefer modern asymmetric schemes when possible: RSA-PSS is safer than old PKCS#1 v1.5, ECDSA gives small fast signatures but demands perfect nonce randomness, and EdDSA (Ed25519) is usually the best choice because it’s fast, secure, and uses deterministic nonces.
  3. Match algorithm to your environment and tooling: RSA has the widest compatibility but large signatures and slower signing, ECDSA risks come from RNG mistakes, and EdDSA may require checking HSM/KMS and library support before committing.

An Interview With Peter Fernandez

ciamweekly • 125 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. CIAM is more than just security — it’s the gateway to seamless experiences across devices and providers using federation, MFA, and passkeys, and it’s becoming essential for B2B SaaS.
  2. Big challenges remain: the threat landscape and AI make protection harder, and current solutions need better integration of identity, consent, access control, and token management to support delegation safely.
  3. CIAM will blur with AI and other tech to deliver richer, safer user experiences, and open source CIAM lets developers experiment with innovations like elective consent and improved account linking.

IEEE-754: THE floating-point standard

Fprox’s Substack • 124 implied HN points • 22 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. IEEE-754 created a common binary floating-point standard that gives hardware and software consistent formats and behaviors, making numerical results more portable and predictable.
  2. Major revisions added practical features — notably the 2008 update introduced decimal formats, half-precision and the fused multiply-add (FMA) for better performance and accuracy, while later updates clarified edge cases and added augmented operations for exact-error reporting.
  3. Work is ongoing (including a 2029 revision and the P3109 effort for tiny formats), because emerging vendor-specific small formats for machine learning could fragment the ecosystem unless standards converge.

MCP Is Just an API

The API Changelog • 9 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. MCP is basically another kind of API that lets LLMs access live data and perform real-time actions, making agents more useful.
  2. The spec is evolving fast and now has major industry backing, which pushes it toward becoming a reliable standard. That rapid change also creates adoption, versioning, and security gaps that need tooling, best practices, and governance.
  3. API product teams and existing OpenAPI practices are well placed to manage MCPs, since good API design leads to better MCP servers and the ecosystem will need product-focused governance, gateways, and UI/app support.

Why Go Imperial In A World Gone Metric?

Everything Is Amazing • 1371 implied HN points • 10 Mar 24
🔬 Science Standards
  1. Imperial and Metric systems both have their advantages and stories behind them, with Metric offering precision in calculations and Imperial reflecting historical ways of measuring based on human experience.
  2. The history of measurement systems shows the challenges in implementing consistent standards, like how France struggled in the 18th century with different measures and Napoleon faced resistance in enforcing the Metric system in the early 19th century.
  3. While Metric is efficient for scientific and engineering accuracy, Imperial measurements still offer unique perspectives and connections to everyday experiences that make both systems valuable.

Of Course DEI Programming Should Be Seen As Psychological Interventions And Held To The Appropriate Standards

Singal-Minded • 1728 implied HN points • 24 Jul 23
🎭️ Culture Standards
  1. Workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are facing challenges and skepticism.
  2. DEI interventions should be seen as psychological interventions and held to appropriate standards to ensure they do not cause harm.
  3. There is a lack of formal and rigorous evaluation of DEI programs, which hinders the ability to determine their effectiveness.

Introducing ERC-8109 Diamonds, a Standard for Simpler Diamond Contracts

EIP-2535 Diamonds • 7 implied HN points • 31 Dec 25
🔮 Crypto Standards
  1. Diamond contracts reduce on-chain complexity by exposing lots of functionality through a single address and breaking large systems into small, purpose-built facets that are easier to test, audit, and evolve.
  2. ERC-8109 simplifies and standardizes diamonds by clarifying terminology, requiring just two introspection functions, replacing the monolithic DiamondCut event with per-function events, and adding an optional, consistent upgrade function plus a clear upgrade path for existing diamonds.
  3. Compose is a practical library and tooling ecosystem that implements ERC-8109 ideas, providing reusable on-chain facets and deployment/testing tools to make building modular diamond systems straightforward for developers.

A retracted paper tells us something important about academia

The Path Not Taken • 418 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🚌 Education Standards
  1. A retracted paper revealed resistance in academia to the idea of certain subjects or institutions having more merit than others, especially regarding external hierarchies.
  2. In academia, there appears to be a growing trend of reluctance towards acknowledging external hierarchies, potentially leading to declining standards and subjects being vulnerable to market pressures.
  3. Editorial actions and societal trends reflect a shift towards more egalitarian philosophies in academia, raising concerns about defending academic standards and traditional disciplines against cost-cutting measures.

Edition #2: Agent Security Standards + Identity/Authorization + Secure Agent Engineering + SecureVibes Update

Boring AppSec • 7 implied HN points • 17 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. AI agent systems need new standards to measure and manage risk because traditional vulnerability scoring and IAM are built for deterministic, human-scoped sessions. Risk models must account for agent autonomy and enforce task-scoped, intent-aware access.
  2. Building secure agents means defending against prompt injection and goal-manipulation, providing explicit contextual inputs, sandboxed error handling, and continuous evals and tracing to tame probabilistic behavior.
  3. Product security should favour practical, incremental fixes and context-aware prioritization, using AI to propose patches but validating downstream impacts and tribal knowledge. Strengthening agent-to-agent protocols and supply-chain controls is essential to prevent abuse and preserve trust.

Edge 440: Interested in AI Evaluation? Meet Microsoft's EUREKA

TheSequence • 84 implied HN points • 17 Oct 24
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Microsoft's EUREKA is a new framework for evaluating AI models. It helps in analyzing and measuring the abilities of large foundation models more effectively.
  2. The framework goes beyond just giving one score. It provides a detailed understanding of how well AI models perform across different tasks.
  3. EUREKA aims to address the need for better evaluation tools in the industry as current benchmarks are becoming outdated.

Intel Thunderbolt 5: Up to 120 Gbps with PAM3

More Than Moore • 210 implied HN points • 12 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. The new Intel Thunderbolt 5 specification offers up to 120 Gbps bandwidth with PAM3 signaling.
  2. Thunderbolt 5 is backward compatible with Thunderbolt 4, providing faster charging, networking, and PCIe speed.
  3. PAM3 signaling in Thunderbolt 5 enables increased speed and efficiency by transmitting three bits per two transfers.

Productivity, Anxiety and Standards

🔮 Crafting Tech Teams • 19 implied HN points • 11 Aug 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Standards
  1. Psychological safety in tech teams impacts goals and visions, affecting productivity and team dynamics.
  2. Coaching experience and career insights provide valuable lessons and use cases for enhancing team productivity.
  3. Consider subscribing to Crafting Tech Teams for more insightful posts on productivity, anxiety, and standards in tech.

Absolute vs Relative

Sunday Letters • 99 implied HN points • 18 Jan 22
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. People often think in relative terms rather than absolute ones. For example, you might feel cold or warm based on how you compare the temperature to what you're used to.
  2. When measuring success or progress, it's easy to lower your standards without realizing it. If everyone around you is doing less, you might think you're doing fine, but that can lead to problems.
  3. Not everything can or should be measured absolutely. It’s important to stay aware and not become complacent, like the frog that doesn’t notice the water getting hotter.

The MCP Registry Opportunity

The API Changelog • 1 implied HN point • 21 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. The MCP registry is acting like an app store, becoming the central connector that lets AI agents find and use third‑party tools directly.
  2. Zero‑friction, API‑based publishing caused thousands of MCP servers to appear quickly, creating a two‑sided platform of producers and consumers.
  3. That rapid open growth brings quality and discovery problems, so the registry will need curation or verification to keep user trust or risk losing the marketplace role to competitors.

Alternative Ways to Make Your APIs Discoverable

The API Changelog • 3 implied HN points • 25 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. APIs can be easier to discover if businesses agree on a format to share information about them. This helps consumers find and understand how to use the APIs more effectively.
  2. There are various proposals, like APIs.json and DISCO, aimed at improving API discovery, but none have fully succeeded in the market yet. They offer different features, like documentation and service registration.
  3. The latest effort, RFC 9727, combines aspects of previous proposals and aims to improve how APIs are indexed. However, it still lacks some search capabilities that could make finding APIs easier.

The AI 'arms race' fallacy

Platforms, AI, and the Economics of BigTech • 4 implied HN points • 04 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. The AI race isn't just about who has the best technology. It's more about how countries are reshaping global trade and their economic rules through tech exports.
  2. Countries like the US and China are not only building powerful AI but are also influencing how other nations build their own infrastructure based on their standards.
  3. Europe risks falling behind by trying to regulate technology instead of actively shaping it. If it doesn't adapt, it might just follow the rules set by others.

Some thoughts on the C Standard

John Breaks Stuff • 1 implied HN point • 06 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. The C programming language has some odd rules, especially about how it handles errors. For example, signed overflow is undefined behavior, meaning anything can happen if there's an error, while unsigned wraparound is defined and predictable.
  2. Different ways to represent numbers exist in C, but now most compilers only use two's complement. This can cause problems, like when dividing by negative numbers, but these issues will go away if we return to using one's complement.
  3. The C standards committee is responsible for maintaining the C language, and they're trying to modernize it. This includes creating official websites and using platforms like GitHub, which could change how the community interacts with the standard.

OpenAPI Is Not Enough

The API Changelog • 1 implied HN point • 06 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. OpenAPI is a useful tool for defining REST APIs but has limitations that can affect complex API development. It may not always help in generating high-quality code for sophisticated APIs.
  2. Alternatives to OpenAPI, like TypeSpec from Microsoft and Smithy from Amazon, are gaining attention for their ability to better define APIs and improve developer experience. They offer features like better syntax support and the ability to generate various API assets.
  3. There is a need for OpenAPI to address its limitations as more companies explore different API definition languages. This could enhance interoperability and standardization in API development.

Burkhard on Qt Embedded Systems: No. 2

burkhardstubert • 19 implied HN points • 31 Jan 20
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Using address sanitizers can help find bugs in your code more easily. They show where problems are happening, making debugging faster.
  2. The SAE J1939 standard helps different devices communicate by defining the meaning of messages in vehicle systems. This is important for consistent data across various manufacturers.
  3. Creating portable code separates it from hardware specifics, making it easier to test and run on different systems. This is a key focus for using Qt effectively.

Federated Credential Management (FedCM)

ciamweekly • 0 implied HN points • 04 Aug 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. FedCM lets users log into websites easily using identities from sources like Google. This helps simplify the login process.
  2. One big benefit of FedCM is that it enhances user privacy by reducing ways that websites can track people online.
  3. FedCM is still being developed and needs support from browsers, identity providers, and websites to work fully. Major companies like Google and Shopify are getting involved.

Trusted AI - The Astute AI Anthology, 2023-04-27

Trusted • 0 implied HN points • 27 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Snapchat's My AI feature faced backlash when they made it a paid subscription; users are not happy.
  2. Google merged Google Brain and DeepMind into Google DeepMind, possibly affecting product innovation.
  3. Google Cloud announced Google Cloud AI Workbench with security tools, showing innovation in a competitive space.

Blue Sky Authentication/Identity Starter Pack

ciamweekly • 0 implied HN points • 09 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Bluesky is a social platform that feels like an older version of Twitter, great for sharing knowledge and having discussions. It limits posts to 300 characters but allows threading for more detailed conversations.
  2. There is a special feature called 'starter packs' that lets users quickly follow groups of experts within a specific topic, like authentication and identity, with just one click.
  3. Following experts on Bluesky can provide valuable insights, like checklists for deploying passkeys or discussions on issues with SMS multi-factor authentication.

Selective Disclosure for JWTs

ciamweekly • 0 implied HN points • 16 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Selective Disclosure for JWTs lets issuers control what parts of the information can be shared with different parties. This means not everyone gets to see everything in the JWT.
  2. There are three main parties involved: the issuer who creates the JWT, the holder who possesses it, and the verifier who checks it. Each has a different level of access to the information.
  3. This approach is useful in situations where privacy is key, allowing only specific data to be shared while keeping other details confidential.

An Interview With Heather Flanagan

ciamweekly • 0 implied HN points • 25 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. CIAM helps create smooth and secure customer experiences online. It reduces password use and allows for modern authentication methods like passkeys and multi-factor authentication.
  2. A big challenge in CIAM is balancing security with user experience. Organizations often struggle to keep systems safe while also making them easy for users to navigate.
  3. The future of CIAM is promising with new technologies like biometrics and better standards. These advancements could lead to safer, more personalized interactions for customers.

Use bad standards

CodeFaster • 0 implied HN points • 28 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. ChainId is a confusing standard in crypto, but it is universal, which makes it easier to use across different applications. Instead of creating custom names for chains, sticking with chainId saves development time.
  2. Creating custom standards can complicate things, as you might have to map your data to fit different APIs. This can lead to a lot of extra work for developers.
  3. Even if a standard seems bad, if everyone else uses it, it often makes more sense to stick with that standard to avoid unnecessary complications.

AI's New Rules: How OpenAI is Shaping the Ethics of the Future?

AI Disruption • 0 implied HN points • 09 May 24
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. OpenAI has released 'Model Spec' guidelines to set behavioral standards for AI models, inviting public input.
  2. The 'Model Spec' proposes three levels for shaping model behavior: broad principles, specific rules, and default guidelines.
  3. OpenAI's goals include promoting good behavior in AI, prioritizing safety, fairness, and ethical decision-making through their guidelines.

Alert: Central Bank of Nigeria Circular PSM/DIR/PUB/CIR/001/039

RegAlert • 0 implied HN points • 27 Jun 23
💰 Finance Standards
  1. The Central Bank of Nigeria issued guidelines for contactless payments in the country, aiming to standardize operations and promote innovation while ensuring financial system stability.
  2. Banks, financial institutions, and payment service providers are required to adhere to these guidelines, implement risk management processes, and maintain relevant standards for contactless payments.
  3. Participants in contactless payments in Nigeria must download and adhere to Circular PSM/DIR/PUB/CIR/001/039 available on the Central Bank of Nigeria's website.

An Interview With Jen Schreiber

ciamweekly • 0 implied HN points • 24 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. CIAM should bridge the gap between security best practices and everyday users by making the secure choice the easiest default, using things like transparent MFA, just-in-time access, and session expiry to guide safe behavior.
  2. Modern CIAM is more complex and distributed across many systems and third parties, which widens the attack surface and makes rapid detection and response a core challenge.
  3. The future of CIAM is continuous, real-time access evaluation and automated response, with standards like the Shared Signals Framework enabling fast event sharing so access can be adjusted or revoked instantly.

London Meetup 19th July

RSS DS+AI Section • 0 implied HN points • 12 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. Upcoming London meetup on 19th July will focus on 'International Standards for AI.'
  2. The event will also cover how to avoid becoming an 'ornamental' data scientist.
  3. Guest speaker Dr. Florian Ostmann from The Alan Turing Institute will lead the discussion.

An AI Identity White Paper

ciamweekly • 0 implied HN points • 28 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Standards
  1. AI identity management is becoming more important as technology advances. It's crucial to establish standards for how we manage identities in this space.
  2. A white paper titled 'Authentic AI' discusses ways to incorporate authentication and authorization for AI agents. This could lead to better security and trust in AI systems.
  3. Engaging in discussions with community groups like OpenID can foster innovation in AI identity management. Collaboration is key to addressing challenges in this area.