Michelle Hughes

@MegaMichelle@a2mi.social
712 Followers
1,061 Following
11.2K Posts

Ann Arbor City Council thoughts, and also random nonsense.

Special abilities: Flying, shooting lasers out of eyes -- you know, "girl power". "Ms. Information". (She/Her) 🏳️‍⚧️

DJ on WCBN-FM, 88.3, https://wcbn.org. Tue 6-9am Eastern time. I play music that is made primarily by people other than cis men. And then I talk about city council stuff.

Pronounsshe/her
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/xMegaMichellex
Ann Arbor City Council Bloghttps://a2council.info
Michelle Hughes1h ago
Erin Reed6h ago
Great news for Argentina readers! The transgender healthcare ban for trans youth has been ruled unconstitutional in the country. The country has seen ferocious crackdowns on lgbtq people in recent months. palabrasdelderecho-com-ar.translate.goog/articulo/587...

Declararon inconstitucional al...
Declararon inconstitucional al DNU que modificó la Ley de Identidad de Género

La decisión consideró que el Poder Ejecutivo no estaba habilitado a emitir esa norma excepcional y cambiar una legislación que lleva más de una década rigiendo en el país.

Michelle Hughes4h ago
It's Going Down4h ago

FBI raided home of pro-Palestine organizers in #Michigan this morning.

"The TAHRIR Coalition, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, asked members to go to the Ypsilanti home in a statement released Wednesday morning. The group alleges the raid is targeting protesters who support Palestine amid the war in Gaza."

https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2025/04/3-arrested-released-in-fbi-raid-on-ypsilanti-home.html

3 detained, released in FBI raid on Ypsilanti home

The raid happened around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 23. A pro-Palestinian protest group is on scene alleging the raid was against some of its members.

mlive
Michelle Hughes4h ago
Rib 5h ago
Today Melissa Lewis over on BlueSky pointed out that the font used in the infamous "You wouldn't steal a car" anti-piracy campaign was actually designed by Just van Rossum, whose brother, Guido, created the Python programming language (bsky.app/profile/melissa.news/post/3ln7hx5rhcj2v)

She also pointed out that the font had been cloned and released illegally for free under the name "XBAND Rough". Naturally, it would be hilarious if the anti-piracy campaign actually turned out to have used this pirated font, so I went sleuthing and quickly found a PDF from the campaign site with the font embedded (web.archive.org/web/20051223202935/http://www.piracyisacrime.com:80/press/pdfs/150605_8PP_brochure.pdf).

So I chucked it into FontForge and yep, turns out the campaign used a pirated font the entire time!
Melissa Lewis (@melissa.news)

TIL: The 2000s piracy PSA used a font designed by the fantastic Just van Rossum, whose brother Guido created the Python programming language. https://fontsinuse.com/uses/67480/piracy-it-s-a-crime-psa

Bluesky Social
Michelle Hughes5h ago
Paul Bassett Davies10h ago
Elon Musk is stepping away from his role in the US government, like Dr. Frankenstein backing away from his monster.
Michelle Hughes5h ago
Emily Velasco1d ago

Did you ever wonder why 'calculus' refers both to a type of math and the plaque deposits that form on teeth? I have, so I looked it up.

Both come from the Latin word calx, meaning limestone.

The term came to be associated with math through the use of stones or pebbles for counting.

It came to be associated with dental plaque because it's a stony material that forms on teeth. (It's also used for other mineralized secretions of the body, like kidney stones).

So, there it is. Calculus is counting with rocks. Calculus is rocks on your teeth.

Michelle Hughes7h ago
GayDeceiverJan 19

Friend: Which one, Mastodon or Bluesky?

Me: Mastodon has scientists and experts in their field who love to share about their lives, and everyone is super nice. Bluesky is not so much.

Friend:

Me: Mastodon is Star Trek. Bluesky is Star Wars.

Friend: Why didn’t you say that first?

Michelle Hughes16h ago
Show threadLars Brinkhoff16h ago
@MegaMichelle @PavelASamsonov I say unto you https://github.com/tenderlove/analog-terminal-bell
GitHub - tenderlove/analog-terminal-bell: A bell for your terminal that is analog

A bell for your terminal that is analog. Contribute to tenderlove/analog-terminal-bell development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadMichelle Hughes19h ago
Sounds like I may have to engage with the literature instead of just daydreaming.
Show threadMichelle Hughes21h ago

Aw, shucks. I wanted this to be strong against even an evil server, but I don't think this is going to work.

An evil server might keep track of which buckets were subscribed to.

They might notice that whenever A sent a message, there was a higher than random chance that one of the buckets it was sent to was one of the ones that B was listening to, and the might conclude that A and B are friends. So all my clever shenanigans amounted to very little.

Oh well.

Show threadMichelle Hughes21h ago

But no one has ever told the server anybody's TOTP key. The server cannot derive anyone's recipient key or predict which buckets a recipient will subscribe to next.

So, a sender sends a message to bucket 12, 3, and 80. Later, they send a message to bucket 30, 28, and 45. Are those two messages intended for the same recipient? The server doesn't know!