James W. Meng
Home/Resume/CV -- VLNLAB -- Projects -- Abuse by the United States Government -- Writings
Since 2017, I have built several personal software & hardware projects. All but one of these projects are now defunct. The remaining one has been resurrected, in portable, cross-platform format for the post-Intel era, but is not actively maintained.
SLICE
A portable Linux container running Slic3r.
We have previously discussed the illegal theft and regulation of privately owned intellectual property by the United States government and its technology industry.
One prominent vector by which this is accomplished is in the digital fabrication sphere. Since the 3D printing boom began in the first half of the 2010s, independent manufacturers and developers of 3D printing hardware and software have been snapped up by large corporations. What was once an open ecosystem driven forward by idealistic, thoughtful semi-professionals is now viewed as a struggling revenue stream, particularly in the consumer and prosumer spaces, with applications that in some cases run counter to these companies' broader goals.
As such, there have been efforts to centralize and corrupt the ecosystem to a significant degree. Amazon, for example, maintains a superficially-large selection of parts and materials for 3D printers, yet few are quality-checked: perhaps as much as 25% or more of their product catalog in parts consists of items that are totally non-functional due to major design flaws.
The website for Slic3r, the main free and open-source client-side 3D model gcode generator available today, offered up versions for United States users for quite some time that contained malicious code permitting remote intrusion and code execution on users' computers. We are thus far unable to confirm the entity responsible for this.
Other 3D model GCode generators create similar major code-related faults. Current versions of Simplify3D, for example, no longer produce structurally-sound solid parts. This is accomplished purposefully by irregular interruptions in the volume of extruded plastic at structurally-important points in a model and is also true of several other GCode generators.
In our view, these changes may have been implemented due to a desire to regulate the printing of functional firearms, or simply to drive prototyping of physical products to specialists - yet they have stymied efforts at high-quality self-production of any 3D printed item.
While there can be no doubt that the existence of several functional proof-of-concept 3D printed firearms is potentially a worry for governments, illegal and undisclosed regulation of software is an extremely slippery slope in our view, particularly as it relates to the purposeful disabling of software that was functional at the time of sale. On this basis there is now cause for a class action lawsuit against Simplify3D by its clients, for example.
In light of the above, we built from source code a version of Slic3r with verified integrity over a Linux installation in an isolated virtual machine container. Due to intellectual property, security, and production integrity concerns, we do not recommend running any 3D model GCode generator from your primary 'bare iron' operating system installation, nor can we recommend cloud-based GCode generators such as AstroPrint. We have therefore built Slic3r LIVE entirely without software support for network connectivity.
NOTE: All work with external disks must be done via the removable media (USB, SD card, etc.) partitions that automount in the /media/ folder. These physical devices must be connected to the virtual machine container through your hypervisor.
Download Links:
Part 1: Open Virtual Appliance format (for VirtualBox, VMWare, etc)
MD5: 8c55c1e1f84050049379b44d63fa5734
Part 2: Open Virtual Appliance format (for VirtualBox, VMWare, etc)
MD5: 72f81938a2393f262f34ce4d8ee2ec33
This is a re-release of my old live USB, Slic3r LIVE, dedicated to Heinrich Reuss, an elderly German prince who is wrongfully imprisoned in Germany for allegedly "plotting a coup" against the failed German government.
The IBM z390 emulator in a ReactOS virtual machine.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS PROJECT IS NOW DEFUNCT.
Recently while taking a course on IBM mainframe assembler language, I needed to run the above emulator - but I didn't want to buy a PC, or pay for Windows. More on that in a bit, but first, a joke:
***
Three Microsoft programmers and three IBM programmers are traveling by train to a conference. At the station, the three IBM programmers each buy tickets and watch as the three Microsoft programmers buy only a single ticket.
"How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks one of the IBM programmers.
"Watch and you'll see," answers the Microsoft programmer.
They all board the train. The IBM programmers take their respective seats but all three Microsoft programmers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them.
Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "ticket, please." The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on.
The IBM programmers witness all this and agreed it was quite a clever idea. So after the conference, the IBMers decide to copy the Microsofties on the return trip and save some money.
When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the Microsoft programmers don't buy a ticket at all.
"How are you going to travel without a ticket?" asks one of the perplexed IBM programmers.
"Watch and you'll see," answers one of the Microsoft programmers.
When they board the train the three IBM programmers cram into the first restroom they can. The three Microsoft programmers pile into another one nearby. Shortly thereafter, the train leaves the station.
After a brief interval, one of the Microsoft software engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the IBM programmers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, "Ticket, please..."
***
This emulator is not really written for Windows. It's mostly written in Java. At the same time, it's challenging to set up on ReactOS because ReactOS still hasn't had environment variables implemented throughout the whole MS-DOS compatibility layer, which is required because the scripts that run the various Java apps that carry out the emulator's functions are in DOS batch file format. And this is why I packaged it as a virtual machine: so you can run this image on a Mac, on Linux, on BSD, on a Chromebook, even on your phone if you want. There's no need to have anything to do with Microsoft to program an IBM mainframe at all.
Open Virtual Appliance format (for VirtualBox, VMWare, etc)
MD5: 3ecac4ebbf3782fe4494128296772b3b
NOTE: Windows SmartScreen sometimes incorrectly reports that this package contains malware and/or a trojan horse sort of virus. This is NOT true:
Sadly, Microsoft is well known for their criminal anti-competitive behavior already, and this is just the latest example. But if you're still worried and want to verify this for yourself, you can browse the code of the file they flagged here. And you'll see - no malicious code at all. Google Drive incorrectly flagged me for this as well. What I'd be worried about is - you may experience issues from Microsoft and/or criminal western security types hacking you to teach you a lesson if you use ReactOS. And I unfortunately can't do anything about that. You just have to be aware and ready to report them to law enforcement in your country if the issue arises.