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Read on for an extended version of the Q&A with Firefox co-founder Blake Ross that's running in this week's Software Notebook, in Monday's paper. I spoke with him over lunch Friday at Gnomedex in Seattle, and we covered a lot of ground.
|Dan DeLong / P-I
|Blake Ross, 21, co-creator of Firefox, at Gnomedex last week.
Q: The community is at work on Firefox 2.0. Given the success of the first Firefox, is there pressure to make big advances with the second one?
Ross: Yeah, there certainly is pressure. There's pressure on pretty much everything we do right now – the marketing side, the engineering side, because of the initial success of it. People expect us to come up with ever-better Spread Firefox campaigns.
That's especially difficult for us, because the goal of Firefox has always been just to make things simpler, and making things simpler usually doesn't mean adding grandiose new features and making sure that the next version has something that identifies it as being new, which has kind of been the (Microsoft) Office model to date, every release has to have something new so people know they got their money's worth.
Some of the feedback we have gotten about the 2.0 release (test version) has been, what's new here? It looks like the 1.0 release because most of the work that has been going on has been to make it more stable, how do we fix the memory problems that people are complaining about, how do we make everyday tasks easier – like spell-checking, for example, in Web forms. Little things that you're not going to notice when you first fire up Firefox 2.0, but you're going to use it for two weeks and say, yeah, this is definitely an overall better experience.
Fortunately we've become kind of accustomed to complaints from the blogosphere and from geeks, which is generally where this line of pressure comes from. We're pretty good at picking out the points that are important to us and really just letting the others go. I think we're pretty focused on making the experience better, making it simpler, and not focused on making a big splash just for the purpose of making a big splash.
RELATED LINKS Blake Ross' blog. February 2005 Wired cover story. Ross' Saturday appearance at Gnomedex. The "Wheee!" fan-made video that Ross showed at the conference. Wikipedia bio. Previous Q&A with Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner. Microsoft Internet Explorer team blog. From the archives: Internet Explorer GM: 'We messed up.' From the archives: Microsoft, Mozilla: A symbol of cooperation?
Q: I know you're asked frequently about Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft's next browser. How much have you used the test version, and what do you think of it?
Ross: I've used it a little bit. The truth is that it actually looks pretty good. People don't expect me to say that, they expect me to say that it's terrible. They did exactly what we were expecting them to do, which was take a bunch of time and get IE7 up to feature parity with Firefox. I haven't seen any real innovation above and beyond what we delivered in Firefox. I think that it's a solid product, but I think that by the time it comes out, we're going to be another world ahead of them again, so I think it's kind of a step or two behind us.
We really are trying to make it less of a religious thing. The whole browser space in general has traditionally been very religious.
Q: Kind of like operating systems.
Ross: Kind of like operating systems, exactly. We're trying to just say, we've all got good ideas in this space. Everyone's talking, for example, about how IE7 is ripping off Firefox. I'm very careful to say that they're matching feature parity. They are ripping off Firefox in a sense, but the truth is that when we started Firefox, we ripped off Internet Explorer because we wanted to make sure that people who migrated from IE felt comfortable in the Firefox world.
If that means copying the interface to some degree, if that means copying some keyboard shortcuts to make sure that people can migrate and feel comfortable, that's what we'll do, and then we can innovate on top of that. I think in general, the community understands that this is kind of a collaborative process. There are always going to be people on the fringes who are just kind of zealots in either direction.
Q: Microsoft essentially allowed Internet Explorer to go dormant for several years, until Firefox started coming along and chipping away at its market share. What do you think about that, and what does that say about the state of competition?
Ross: That makes me furious, to be completely honest with you. That, more than anything is why we really had to start Firefox in the first place. People think that we started Firefox just to take down Microsoft, just to win some kind of competition. Why would we want to win? There's no money involved for us, there's no IPO for this company, it's a non-profit. Why would we want to do this unless there's a real need?
The truth is I think Microsoft is very directly responsible for spyware and adware and the pop-up ads in general that proliferated across the Web after they abandoned their product. I mean, this is the world's most-used software application ever … and I just think it's irresponsible for a company to abandon it simply because they can't find a financial incentive to continue development on it.
People ask me, "Well, gee, if IE7 is starting to catch up to Firefox, and if they've got their hand back in development right now, and eventually they might actually catch up to Firefox in terms of features, what's the benefit of using Firefox? Why are you guys still around if you say that your only goal is just to make the Web a better place?"
My answer to that is, how much can you really trust a company that five years ago completely left you abandoned? If they do, in fact, succeed in taking back some of the market share that Firefox has gotten back from them, who's to say that they're not going to disappear again? My issue is not so much at a product level, it's at a company level. How do you trust a company that left everyone out in the cold for five years?
Q: Firefox's market share, after growing quickly, has by some measures hit a ceiling or slipped. It depends on which survey you look at. Do you expect to see further growth?
Ross: First of all, you mention that it depends on which survey you look at, and that's an important point, because as Firefox has grown, we've seen a willingness of these surveyors and these analyst groups to put out any kind of headline with Firefox in it. The good story obviously is Firefox breaks 10 percent or Firefox is slowing down. I mean Firefox reaches 14 percent is not an interesting story.
When you start to dig down to the methodology behind some of these, you find out that they're testing something that is not a really representative sampling of the world. The truth is that we have our own internal market share numbers, obviously, that we get through some of our partners like Google and other people that we work with and they tend to be a lot more reliable than a random sampling of 500 Web sites. Our numbers show us growing at a steady rate pretty much since the launch of Firefox 1.0. Same number of downloads per day, on average.
So I think that we're actually continuing to grow at a stable rate. If you look at the press reports that come out over the last year and a half, you're going to find five different firms declaring at five different points of the year that we just hit 10 percent.
Q: Is the ultimate potential reach of Firefox limited by Microsoft's distribution of Internet Explorer as an integrated component of Windows?
Ross: Obviously it is to some degree, I can't claim that it's not. But I think that's much less of a problem in 2006 than it was in 1998 when Netscape was fighting this battle. Because there's a pretty huge difference between something shipping in the operating system vs. having to go to Best Buy and buy it, and the world we live in today, where broadband is obviously a pretty key component of a lot of people's Internet experience. It's much easier and it's much more natural today to download and install software. Firefox is what, 6 megabytes on Windows, that's a 1-minute download on broadband. I think that the barrier to entry for us to get people to download Firefox is much lower than it used to be.
But again, by the same token, we're reaching 12 and 15 percent market share. We've still got a long way to go.
MORE FROM GNOMEDEX Posts and photos from others at the conference. Notes: Day One, Day Two. From the P-I: John Edwards courts tech crowd. Gnomedex official site. Chris Pirillo's blog.
Q: How do you come down on the basic antitrust question (of Microsoft's distribution of Internet Explorer with Windows)? Do you have an opinion on that?
Ross: I cannot imagine getting an operating system today and it not having a Web browser I think it makes sense to have a Web browser available with the operating system. I do not agree with how Microsoft integrated it so tightly with the operating system, because among other things that's a security problem.
But obviously there's a difference between needing a browser available in the operating system and having only one browser ship with the operating system, and having to have us pay to get Firefox shipped with Dell computers, to get shipped with other vendors. So, I agree with the basic concept of having a browser in the operating system. I don't agree obviously with the way that Microsoft stifles the choice of which browser to use.
Q: You're working on a startup with Joe Hewitt, but you seem to be in stealth mode. What can you say about what you're doing?
Ross: I honestly can't say anything at this point — especially to a Seattle newspaper.
Q: Why especially to a Seattle newspaper?
Ross: Because the people who are most likely to care about the startup are most likely to be reading your paper.
Q: Over in Redmond?
Ross: Yep.
Q: There seems to be a good relationship between Google and Firefox. Where do you see that relationship going in the long run?
Ross: First I should clarify what that relationship is. We've obviously got a search deal, or I should say the Mozilla Foundation has a search deal with Google — I don't work for Mozilla right now — and that deal is that if someone uses the Firefox home page, which is Google branded, or if they use the Firefox search box in the top right corner, which has Google installed by default, and then they click on an ad, then Mozilla gets a portion of that ad revenue.
A lot of people think that we sold that space to the highest bidder — obviously the search box and the home page are prime space in the browser. The truth is that we used Google long before Google had ever heard of us, just because it was the best. If we ever had to we could switch to a better provider because we're not locked in like a Netscape would be locked in to using its own Netscape search engine.
As far as the relationship goes, they've been an incredible partner for us. They featured Firefox on the Google home page for an entire day, which drives more traffic than we could get on our own in probably a year. Obviously their motivations are clear — they see that IE7 is coming out, it has MSN Search integrated into its box, and this is kind of their play in the browser space. But we're so closely aligned with them in terms of what users want and building good user experiences, that we're really happy to have them as a partner.
Q: How much do you personally work on the Firefox code these days?
Ross: Very, very, very little. Most of my Firefox time these days is spent on the marketing side of things, helping out with the Firefox Flicks contest we just did, helping out with Spread Firefox. To be honest with you, we've got very capable people running Firefox right now, and I am spending most of my time on this startup.
Q: So you're on leave from Stanford's undergrad program, you're 21. Where do you see your career and your life headed from here?
Ross: I think a lot of people, especially in the (Silicon) Valley become cynical about kids stopping out of school — not dropping out, I'm stopped out of Stanford, it's called — to work on a startup. I'm not quite as cynical about that. I would not be stopping out of Stanford unless I really believed in what we were doing. It's not a social bookmarking site, it's not another clone of what's trendy these days. I believe that what we're doing is going to be a long-term thing, and so I see myself hopefully running this large company in a couple years' time.
I don't see myself spending my entire life in the software industry, simply because I think that life is too short to do anything for too long. I feel like I've already been in the software industry for a generation now. I've already been doing this for like 12 years already. Actually after this startup takes off, hopefully, and is making a difference, I would like to get into film.
Q: Really? What type?
Ross: I actually have two different kinds of interests – I like to write fiction, and I like to kind of do film editing and production. And so, hopefully I can do the whole Apple software-hardware experience and write the novel and then produce the film out of the novel. But as far as what kind of film, I don't know, anything goes. I like it all, comedy, drama, anything. The amazing thing is that Firefox has actually given me connections into Hollywood, which you would not actually expect to happen.
Q: How does open-source development stack up against traditional development inside a company?
Ross: First of all, I'm not an open-source zealot. I think it's one tool of many, one methodology, and you have to choose the right tool for what you're building. I think it's impossible to claim that open source is inherently better than proprietary software, but I think it's got a number of advantages.
I think the first advantage has nothing to do with the fact that the code is open source so much as the fact that open source projects tend to be much smaller and much less bureaucratic than large organizations. So, for example, if you look at Microsoft, even if there were engineers inside the company who wanted to continue work on Internet Explorer (several years ago) — which I'm sure there were, because they're not evil people — they couldn't do it, because the company disbanded the team. If you wanted to work on IE, you could not do that at the company's directive.
Obviously in open source, you have much more control over the lifetime and life cycle of your product, and you can really take it in your own direction. That's been an amazing benefit to us in Firefox, especially after having worked at Netscape for two years, and seeing kind of the junk that went on at that company. So number one, I think open source provides a much tighter-knit community of developers working together, which I think tends to produce better products.
Obviously the fact that the code is freely available has implications in terms of security, because any security expert can review your code, there's no secrets. And you've really got a global community of volunteers working on this project every day. So if you do something that offends some other country, you're going to hear about it from the citizens of that country who work on the product. It's very easy to develop a globally aware product in an open-source community.
The flip side of that is that proprietary companies so far have been traditionally much better at being able to actually get out of the echo chamber and listen to real users. A lot of open-source projects, because they're started by developers for developers — people scratching their own itch — tend to end up with very geeky products. They don't believe in marketing, they don't believe in the mainstream. They're supposed to be the anti-mainstream, right, so it's very hard for most open-source projects to break out of that mentality, and I think that we've had some success there with Firefox.


text:
What is ABC Zoom?
ABC Zoom is a science-based game set in deep space.
The space ship Polaris has come under attack. The ship and her captain have sustained damage that can only be repaired at the molecular or cellular level.
Your mission: Use the futuristic tool you'll find on the ship to zoom down to the microscopic and atomic levels, reviving the captain and her ship.
As you explore the ship, you'll meet Amber and Quaan who can help you find your way and uncover the Polaris' secrets. But be careful, space is never as straightforward as it seems…
ABC Zoom was conceived by Bernie Hobbs from ABC Science as a fun and interactive way of visualising and understanding parts of science that we can never see.
The science
Everything that happens in our everyday world has a parallel story that takes place out of sight - at the molecular or microscopic scale.
ABC Zoom takes players on a journey inside living things and devices – right down to magnifications of up to X 1,000,000,000!
Zooming inside an eyeball, brain or laser you can explore and interact with the energy, molecules and charges that make all of these things tick.
Learning resources
As well as the videos explaining the science behind the games within ABC Zoom, we've pulled together a collection of great online resources for teachers and players to explore.
The topics explored in the game are also mapped to the Australian Science Curriculum.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Use Full Links
Use our Zakat calculator to find out how much Zakat you have to pay.Zakat calculator
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text:
Archive of 2008
Looking back: 2008
The state of British politics changed more in 2008 than it has done at any time in the past 11 years.
Analysis: Bishops point the finger
As the nation wrings its hands wondering who to blame for the recession, the Church of England has pointed its finger - at the government.
Brown press conference as-it-happened
See how the prime minister's press conference went down in Downing Street.
PMQs as-it-happened
Downing Street tells us Gordon Brown won't be back in time for questions today after his press conference in Iraq this morning. Harriet Harman will be taking over for him.
Feature: Women in politics
On this day in 1918, women voted in a British general election for the first time. Ninty years later they still face immense challenges.
Menezes ruling: Reaction
All the reaction to the ruling in the case of Jean Charles de Menezes
Profile: Sally Hunt
Just because Sally Hunt says she isn't "macho" doesn't mean you should underestimate her powers as a union leader.
PMQs as-it-happened
See how this week's prime minister's questioned went down, with politics.co.uk's live blog.
Queen's Speech 2008: Full list of bills
The full list of bills in the Queen's Speech 2008.
Queen's Speech 2008 in full
Queen's Speech 2008 in full
Queen's Speech 2008/Speaker's statement: As-It-Happened
Good morning and welcome to the opening of parliament. Also on our agenda today is the first day of debate and any trouble over the Damian green affair.
Queen's Speech 2008: Cameron response
Tory leader David Cameron responds to the Queen's Speech.
Queen's Speech 2008: Clegg response
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's response to the Queen's Speech
Profile: Damian Green
Damian Green's rise in the Tory party has been marked by effective attacks on the Home Office and a series of tensions with other Tories.
BCS MP website awards
Last week saw the second set of MP's website awards given out at a special ceremony in parliament
Pre-Budget 2008: As-It-Happened
Darling stands up. The House is surprisingly noisy. He explains how odd and unusual the economic climate is. Thank you very much, Darling, we hadn't noticed.
Pre-Budget 2008: The bare bones
No comment, no analysis: just the basic policies of today's Pre-Budget Report.
Hope and concern in run up to Pre-Budget Report
Experts, pressure groups and politicians are offering their hopes, concerns and demands ahead of the Pre-Budget Report.
BNP list: State of play
It's been nearly a week since a list of BNP members was published. politics.co.uk surveys the wreckage.
Pro-Europeans hit back
Reports that the EU costs British taxpayers £106,117 a minute are put under the spotlight by pro-European groups.
PMQs As-It-Happened
Cameron gets up. He starts by thanking the PM for the Baby P inquiry, mentioning how he brought it up last week - purely for reasons of accuracy, of course.
Prostitution law: Sex workers speak out
Sex workers say what they think of the government's new law.
Rape in the UK
Rape in the UK
Happy birthday Prince Charles
Today is Prince Charles 60th birthday. Politics.co.uk takes a look back at his life so far.
Feature: Heathrow expansion
This week's debate on expanding Heathrow met with fierce resistance among MPs. But can the government build a new runway while still keeping to its environment agenda?


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Last week I saw this announcement about a new study on race by Michael I. Norton and Samuel R. Sommers from Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Business School. The general conclusion of the study is that basically, "Whites See Racism as a Zero-Sum Game That They Are Now Losing."
Although some have heralded recent political and cultural developments as signaling the arrival of a postracial era in America, several legal and social controversies regarding ''reverse racism'' highlight Whites' increasing concern about anti-White bias. We show that this emerging belief reflects Whites' view of racism as a zero-sum game, such that decreases in perceived bias against Blacks over the past six decades are associated with increases in perceived bias against Whites—a relationship not observed in Blacks' perceptions. Moreover, these changes in Whites' conceptions of racism are extreme enough that Whites have now come to view anti-White bias as a bigger societal problem than anti-Black bias.
The findings of the this report were no surprise to many I am sure, but it does raise a significant question as we think about any major social/cultural issue be it race, sexuality, gender, class, etc. What do we do when a vital member of the community holds a perspective that is more about perception that reality? While I get how White people can "feel" that this is their reality – they are targets of racism – we must not allow this perspective to drive the future of our conversations on race. Yes, there may certainly be instances where White folks are pained because of their race, but the idea that racism against White people should be taken seriously as a larger social reality does not hold water for me. Compassion and understanding for particular instances where White folks are harmed because of the color of their skin must be had, but as a norm that drives larger understandings of race in the United States, acceptance and agreement are simple not options for me.
What I think is really going is that as the perceptions of racial relationships get better, there is a social understanding that if it is not that bad for brown people anymore then certainly it must be worse of for White folks. This "if it's better for 'them' it must be worse for 'us'" mentality only exacerbates the problem of genuine racial harmony.
Now in business circles, where the primary matrix of success and relationships is financial profitability this may actually be true. There is a finite amount of resources that are available for people to attain and exploit. For instance, when I travel and board planes, I see that there are a limited number of seats in first class. There is not an unlimited space for people to be part of that part of the airplane, so IF equal access and opportunity ever does level the playing field, a few of the 90% of White men who generally occupy those seats are going to have to walk a few more rows into coach because there will be women and brown folks moving on up. The same goes for upper-management of fortune 500 companies, leaders of educational institutions and other places where White men still occupy a disproportionate number of high-level seats.
This notion that we each hold a finite amount of resources that must be protected at all costs, and even if those gains have roots in historic injustice and unearned privilege, is dangerous and will get us nowhere. This will be especially true if this posture of scarcity and protectionism is transfered to our understanding of dignity, compassion and community. We often treat our own ability to see people as complex and created human beings as some kind of commodity that is doled out based on merit and/or availability furthering the idea that if am going treat this person with a generous spirit, then I must have to take something away from someone. And even worse, we fall into the destructive trap of believing that if I see someone else being treated with a generous spirit, then obviously something is being taken away from me.
Again, while there is a finite number of seats in First Class and the CEO table, the same does not hold true for the household of God. Unlike our natural proclivity to ration our love like pennies in our pocket, God's abundant love for another, does not mean less for you or I. As culture moves forward and race, gender and sexuality norms shift and change, those who have held a dominate role MUST not see or act out of a feeling that something is being taken away so it must be protected. In fact, society will only reach further into the possibility of a just and whole world if those who hold power and authority joyfully usher in a distribution that provides for the well-being of all God's people.
So . . . all compassion to White friends and strangers for the emotional and physical struggles around your experiences of race, but the social understanding that racism is now worse for White folks than for others must be not only be shed, but challenged by you and the rest society as a whole if we are truly going to move forward to a place of genuine racial wholeness.
Related posts:


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This beautiful and delicate ring was once a stick pin from the Edwardian Era, ca 1910s. It has been converted so you can see it all the time and enjoy it that much more.
The ring size is 6 US and it can be sized. The setting measures 7/16" by 5/16", it is set horizontally.
Made of solid 14k gold, it is set with one diamond shaped sapphire simulant. It is in excellent condition.
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Join us for a fun adventure bringing history to life in our Young Curators Club. Come along on a Saturday morning once a month and try out ancient skills, handle real artefacts, join in with craft activities and find out more about life in the Museum
This month, create your own Egyptian Hieroglyphs using picture techniques.
For 6 – 12 year olds and places must be booked in advance. To book a place, please contact Katy England by emailing email@example.com or telephone 01722 332151.
Please note, each child must be accompanied by an adult at all times.


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Governor Appoints Renteria to District Juvenile Court
January 27, 2014
"Tupakk's extensive expertise in working with abused children and domestic violence cases, along with his unquestionable integrity make him a valuable asset on the bench," said Governor Herbert. "His intelligence and experience will greatly benefit the families of Utah. I am pleased to appoint someone with his keen judgment."
"I am humbled and honored by Governor Herbert's selection to serve as a Juvenile Court Judge in the Third District," said Renteria. "I look forward to serving the citizens of the State of Utah and especially working with the youth in our communities."
Renteria presently serves as Salt Lake County deputy district attorney, a post held since 2007, where he screens and prosecutes felony cases involving sexual and physical abuse of children, and sexual offenses against adults. He served as lead attorney for training paralegals in domestic violence lethality and establishing support plans for victims facing the release of defendants from incarceration. Renteria has prosecuted cases involving kidnapping, driving under the influence, aggravated assault, robbery and homicide while working for the Salt Lake County district attorney's office.
Renteria received his Juris Doctor in 2000 from Temple University School of Law, where he was the president of the Latino Law Student Association. In 1993, Renteria completed his Bachelor of Arts in ethnic studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He also served as a senior assistant prosecutor for Salt Lake City from 2005 to 2007, and as judge pro tempore for the Salt Lake City Justice Court from 2005 to 2010.
Born in Mexico before moving to the United States at the age of five, Renteria is fluent in Spanish and assisted fellow attorneys as an interpreter in domestic violence cases for the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.
Renteria fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Andrew Valdez on November 1, 2013. The governor's appointment is subject to confirmation by the Utah State Senate.


text:
Found this in JZ's blog, mwehehehehehe:
"From the Department of Linguistics, Bahay Kubo in gayspeak.
Valer kuberch, kahit jutay
Ang julamantrax donchi ay anek-anek.
Nyongkamas at nutring, nyogarilyas at kipay
Nyitaw, nyotaw, jutani.
Kundol, jutola, jupot jolabastrax
At mega join-join pa, jobanox nyustasa.
Nyubuyax, nyomatis, nyowang at luyax
And around the keme ay fulnes ng linga."
Funny find!
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Found this in JZ's blog, mwehehehehehe:
4 comments:
- ana said...
kinda hard to understand but really funny..hehe :D
- 06 August, 2007 03:44
- Purple Pig! said...
ha ha ha tin eto naman galing kay cler na blogmate din natin:
Langit Lupa, Bading version
Heaven, Lufa
In, in, infairness!
Okray heartness
Flowing ang dugesh!
Chuging, alive
Dis-a-ppear kanetch!
- 06 August, 2007 13:03
- Kaje said...
hi ana! :)
mami carmz! panalo din yan :) was watching i-witness awhile ago, kinanta itong bahay kubo gay version, ganun pala yun hehehe...
- 07 August, 2007 00:51
- Purple Pig! said...
naku i heard badings converse in their "dialect" grabe para kang naririnig ng nag-uusap ng french...how could they understand each other? do they have dictionary? who invents those words to be used commonly by gays! graveh as in over to the max!
- 08 August, 2007 11:47


text: This new adaptation of 'The Jungle Book' looks a lot darker than the animated version of 1967. The important question is, will it still be a musical? So far, the public has been promised some singing. It looks like the striking CGI and A-list cast of voices will just have to make up for any songs that get left out.


text:
The West Wing alum Ron Canada will guest-star on an upcoming episode of Elementary, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.
Canada will play Manny Rose, a retired high school teacher from a crime-plagued Brooklyn neighborhood who's dedicated his life to improving his community and keeping his students away from gangs and drugs. In the episode, Rose and Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill) lock horns over whether to force a frightened teenaged girl to testify in a murder trial. The episode is slated to air in March.
Elementary Scoop: Rhys Ifans returns for Mycroft-centric finale
Best known for playing Under Secretary of State Theodore Barrow on the NBC political drama, Canada also recurred on Boston Legal as Judge Willard Reese. His recent credits include Blue Bloods, The Closer and The Mentalist.
Elementary airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.
(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS.)


text:
In the final weeks before Election Day, a fight is brewing within the Virginia Republican Party over the Facebook page of a county affiliate that is littered with overtly racist and offensive images of President Obama.
One portrays him and Joe Biden as the stars of Brokeback Mountain; in another, Obama wears a "wife beater," offers a bouquet of flowers, and says "C'mon baby gimme one more chance"; a third image shows him wearing his Nobel Peace Prize on an enormous gold chain.
Mecklenburg County GOP chair Wally Hudson defends the imagery and has ignored a takedown request by the state GOP:
If they don't want to see it, they don't have to look at it. We don't consider any of it racist. ... It's freedom of speech.
Pat Mullins, the state GOP chair, is less than convinced. "These kinds of images have no place in political discourse — period," he said. "The Republican Party of Virginia condemns this sort of imagery in the strongest possible terms."
(Sidenote: Anyone else notice that they're terrible Photoshops?)


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|Institution Type:
|Campus Setting:
|Southeast Town, remote from an urban area
|Highest Degree Offered:
|Associate's degree
|Level of Institution:
|At least 2 but less than 4 years
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Southeastern Technical College is a good way to get hands-on training for my field of study. This school has teachers who care about their students and help them succeed in…
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|AgitarOne JUnit Generator
JUnit Generator automatically generates unit-level regression tests on your Java code base.
Agitator helps development teams control quality as they write software, instead of finding and fixing bugs at the end of the development process. Agitator is an automated assistant for exercising software code and providing observations about its behavior, helping developers unit-test their code while avoiding the effort of writing tests manually.
|Ajax JSP Tag Library
The AJAX Tag Library is a set of JSP tags that simplify the use of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) technology in JavaServer Pages.
|Altova MapForce
Altova MapForce is a visual data mapping tool for data integration and Web services implementation. MapForce converts data on-the-fly and auto-generates custom data mapping code in XSLT 1.0/2.0, XQuery, Java, C++, and C#.
|Android NDK
The Android NDK is a companion tool to the Android SDK that lets you build performance-critical portions of your apps in native code.
|Android SDK
Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware, and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language.
|Android UI Utils
This library of utilities helps in the design and development of Android application user interfaces.
AndroMDA is an open source code generation framework that follows the model-driven-architecture (MDA) paradigm. It takes a UML model from a CASE-tool and generates classes and deployable components (Java EE or other), specific for your application architecture.
ANTLR, ANother Tool for Language Recognition, is a language tool that provides a framework for constructing recognizers, compilers, and translators from grammatical descriptions containing Java, C#, C++, or Python actions. ANTLR supports tree construction, tree walking, and translation.
|Apache Ant
An open source application building and configuration tool designed for Java applications. Unlike 'make', which encourages build scripts to be platform-specific, Apache Ant allows you to specify configuration and dependencies in a portable manner using built-in or external 'tasks' that run applications or system commands for compiling, copying, or executing files.
|Apache Axis
Apache Axis is an open source implementation of the SOAP and WSDL protocols for building and accessing Web services. In addition to a SOAP engine, it includes a stand-alone server, a servlet-based framework for embedding in servlet containers such as Tomcat, and tools to generate WSDL from Java objects.
|Apache Axis2/Java
Apache Axis2 is a core engine for Web services -- a more efficient, more modular, and more XML-oriented redesign and rewrite of the widely used Apache Axis SOAP stack.
|Apache Batik
Batik is a toolkit for generating, manipulating, or displaying images in the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. It includes an SVG parser, SVG generator, and a DOM for manipulating SVG documents.
|Apache BCEL
An open source toolkit for parsing, disassembling, and generating Java bytecode (.class) files. Allows you to create and edit bytecode via an object-oriented interface. BCEL does the work to convert between the bytecode representation and the in-memory, object-oriented representation.
|Apache Beehive
Apache Beehive is a collection of projects providing framework services for enterprise Java applications. Using Java 5.0 annotations for configuration and declarative programming, Beehive reduces the amount of coding necessary for building enterprise applications. It includes a page flow component for centralizing state, navigation logic, and exception handling, in web applications, and a Web services component for simplifying the development of Web services.
|Apache Cayenne
Apache Cayenne is an open source persistence framework providing object-relational mapping (ORM) and remoting services. Cayenne binds one or more database schemas directly to Java objects, managing atomic commit and rollbacks, SQL generation, joins, sequences, and more.
|Apache CFX
The CXF framework helps you build and develop services using front-end APIs such as JAX-WS. These services can speak a variety of protocols such as SOAP, XML/HTTP, RESTful HTTP, or CORBA and work over a variety of transports such as HTTP, JMS, or JBI.
|Apache Commons
The Commons is an Apache project focused on all aspects of reusable Java components. It includes both the Commons Proper, a repository of reusable Java components, and the Commons Sandbox, a workspace for Java component development.
|Apache Derby
The Apache Derby project develops open source database technology that is based on Java technology, is easy to use, has a small footprint, is standards based, and is secure.
|Apache FOP
FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is a formatting engine driven by XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO). It supports output in PDF, PostScript, SVG, and others.
|Apache Geronimo
Apache Geronimo is an open source server runtime framework that includes a fully certified Java EE 5 application server runtime.
|Apache Gump
This continuous-integration tool supports building via Apache Ant, Apache Maven, and other build tools. By building and compiling software against the latest development versions of those projects, it can identify potentially incompatible changes to software just a few hours after changes are checked into the version control system.
|Apache Hadoop
Hadoop is an open source framework for running applications on large clusters of commodity hardware, transparently providing both reliability and data motion. Hadoop implements a computational paradigm named map/reduce, which enables the application to be divided into many small fragments of work, each of which can be executed or reexecuted on any node in the cluster. It also provides a distributed file system that stores data on the compute nodes.
|Apache Ivy
Ivy is a dependency manager, integrated with Apache Ant, that is oriented toward Java dependency management.
|Apache Jackrabbit
Apache Jackrabbit is a fully conforming implementation of the Content Repository for Java Technology API. A content repository is a hierarchical content store with support for structured and unstructured content, full text search, versioning, transactions, observation, and more.
|Apache James
James (Java Apache Enterprise Mail Server) is an open source mail server that supports POP, SMTP, and NNTP. It can store its mail and other data in any JDBC database and provides a flexible "Mailet" interface for gatewaying to other mail systems, translating mail messages, or filtering messages.
|Apache Lenya
Apache Lenya is an open source Java/XML content-management system supporting revision control, site management, scheduling, search, WYSIWYG editors, and workflow.
|Apache Lucene
Jakarta Lucene is a powerful, high-performance, full-featured text search engine written entirely in the Java language. It is a technology suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, and can be easily and flexibly embedded in any Java application.
|Apache Mahout
The goal of the Apache Mahout project is to build scalable machine-learning libraries.
|Apache Maven
Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project's build, reporting, and documentation from a single project model.
|Apache MyFaces
Apache MyFaces is an open source implementation of the JavaServer Faces (JSF) user interface framework.
|Apache Nutch
Nutch is an open source web-search system, built on the Apache Lucene text-indexing engine. It extends the core Lucene engine to provide web-specific support, such as a crawler, a link-graph database, parsers for HTML, and other document formats.
|Apache OFBiz
Open For Business (OFBiz) is an open source enterprise automation software project including an application framework and components that make it easy to create customizable business software based on best practices. OFBiz models typical business processes, such as customers, orders, shipments, payments, and workflows.
|Apache OpenJPA
Apache OpenJPA is a Java persistence project that can be used as a stand-alone POJO persistence layer or integrated into any Java EE compliant container and many other lightweight frameworks, such as Tomcat and Spring.
|Apache PDFBox
PDFBox is an open source Java PDF library that parses PDF documents and allows you to retrieve text and document metadata.
|Apache Pluto
Pluto is the reference implementation of the Java Portlet Specfication. It can run in any servlet container.
|Apache POI
The POI project creates and maintain Java APIs for manipulating various file formats based upon the Office Open XML standards (OOXML) and Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document format (OLE2).
|Apache ServiceMix
ServiceMix is a lightweight, embeddable, open source Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and SOA toolkit supporting the Java Business Integration (JBI) specification. ServiceMix has integrated Spring support and can be run at the edge of the network (inside a client or server), as a stand-alone ESB provider, or as a service within another ESB.
|Apache Solr
Solr is a stand-alone enterprise search server with a Web-services like API, built on Apache Lucene. Documents are fed into the system via XML over HTTP and queried via HTTP GET. It provides advanced full-text search, scalable replication, a rich and extensible query language, configurable text analysis, and support for dynamic result grouping and filtering.
|Apache Struts
An application framework for building web applications using an MVC (model, view, controller) paradigm. It supports easy integration with servlet, JSP, or Velocity-based web applications.
|Apache Tapestry
Tapestry is a comprehensive component-based web application framework that works with the Servlet API and JDK 1.2 or above. It simplifies web application development by organizing an application into pages of components.
|Apache Tomcat
Tomcat is the reference implementation for the Java Servlet and JSP specifications.
|Apache Turbine
A servlet-based application framework for web applications. Turbine includes facilities for logging, JDBC connection pooling, object-relational mapping, job scheduling, and caching.
|Apache Velocity
Apache Velocity is an open source templating engine that lets you use a simple yet powerful template language to reference objects defined in Java code. It is written in 100% pure Java and can be easily embedded into your own applications.
|Apache Wicket
Wicket is a Java web-application framework designed for simplicity, separation of concerns, and ease of development. Wicket pages can be mocked up, previewed, and revised using standard WYSIWYG HTML design tools. Dynamic content processing and form handling is handled in Java code using a component model backed by POJO data beans that can be persisted by a variety of persistence technologies.
|Apache Wink
Apache Wink is a simple framework for building and consuming RESTful Web services. The Wink Server module is a complete implementation of the JAX-RS v1.0 specification, along with additional features designed to facilitate the development of RESTful Web services. The Wink Client module is a Java-based framework for communicating with RESTful Web services.
|Apache Xindice
Xindice is an open source native XML database. It stores and indexes compressed XML documents, and supports rapid queries via XPath and updates via XUpdate.
AppDynamics is an application performance management solution for visualizing and troubleshooting applications running on the JVM. A free "lite" version is available.
AppFuse is a project and application that uses open source tools built on the Java platform to help you develop web applications quickly and efficiently.
ArgoUML is an open source UML modeling tool that includes support for all standard UML 1.4 diagrams. It runs on any Java platform and is available in 10 languages.
Arquillian is a platform that simplifies integration testing for Java middleware. It integrates seamlessly with familiar testing frameworks such as JUnit and TestNG.
ASM is a Java bytecode manipulation framework. It can be used to generate stub classes or other proxy classes dynamically, directly in binary form, or to modify classes dynamically at load time. ASM provides similar functionality to toolkits like BCEL and SERP but is designed to be smaller and faster, making it suitable for use in real-time code instrumentation.
AspectJ is a seamless aspect-oriented extension to the Java language that enables clean modularization of crosscutting concerns, such as error checking and handling, synchronization, context-sensitive behavior, performance optimizations, monitoring and logging, debugging support, and multi-object protocols.
AuthenticRoast is open source software that works with the Java Authentication Service Provider Interface for Containers (JSR 196) to enable development of custom authentication modules for use with container-managed, declarative security.
|AWS Toolkit for Eclipse
The AWS Toolkit for Eclipse is an open source plug-in for the Eclipse Java IDE that makes it easier for developers to develop, debug, and deploy Java applications using Amazon Web Services.
Bamboo extends the concept of a continuous integration server to include build telemetry, which identifies and highlights trends, patterns, and linkages across builds. It can identify the most frequently-failing tests, chart test failure rates over time, and serve as an information repository about previous test failures.
|Bean Scripting Framework
The Apache Jakarta Bean Scripting Framework (BSF) is a set of Java classes that provides scripting-language support within Java applications, and access to Java objects and methods from scripting languages.
BeanKeeper (formerly called Simple Persistence for Java) is a full featured object/relational persistence and query library for Java programming.
BeanShell is a Java-compatible scripting language. BeanShell can interpret ordinary Java source and load .java source files from the class path. BeanShell scripted classes are fully typed and appear to outside Java code and via reflective inspection as ordinary classes. However, their implementation is fully dynamic and they may include arbitrary BeanShell scripts in their bodies, methods, and constructors. Users may freely mix loose, unstructured BeanShell scripts, method closures, and full scripted classes.
BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) is an open source Eclipse-based reporting system that integrates with Java SE and Java EE applications to produce reports.
BlueJ is a free iBlueJ is an integrated Java environment specifically designed for introductory teaching.
|Bonita Open Solution
Bonita is an open source, Java-based business-process management (BPM) and workflow engine that enables users to define, execute, and monitor business processes.
|Bouncy Castle Crypto API
The Bouncy Castle Crypto APIs are a set of lightweight cryptography APIs for Java. It includes a JCE and JCA provider, a clean-room implementation of JCE, and generators for X.509 certificates.
|Branch Transformation Toolkit for WebSphere Studio
Branch Transformation Toolkit for WebSphere Studio is a set of tools, Java components, and services that accelerate the building of multichannel banking applications that access transactional systems. It also enables Branch Transformation initiatives within retail banking, including the construction of branch applications and teller systems.
RSA BSAFE security tools for Java developers provides a complete set of common libraries written in pure Java for meeting the core security requirements of commercial software applications.
|Character Data Conversion Tables
Character Data Conversion Tables provide code point mappings from a specified source Coded Character Set Identifier (CCSID) to a specified target CCSID. These tables enable users to convert data between various encodings including EBCDIC, ASCII and Unicode. The tables include mappings for single-byte, double-byte, and mixed encodings such as Extended UNIX Code (EUC). The conversion tables are not limited to IBM codes. They include pairings for Microsoft and ISO-defined code pages and others. The resources were developed by the Globalization Center of Competency (GCoC) at the IBM Toronto Software Development Laboratory. Additional tables may be available by contacting the GCoC at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Checkstyle is a development tool to test Java code for adherence to a coding style. It automates the process of checking Java code, and allows you to customize the style rules it uses. It includes rules for validating commenting conventions, naming conventions, class design issues, class size, code formatting, and coding style.
|Chemistry Development Kit (CDK)
CDK is a library of Java classes for bioinformatics, computational chemistry, and chemometrics. It provides algorithms such substructure search, SMILES, Gasteiger charges, QSAR descriptor calculation, 3D structure generation, and 2D layout and rendering.
Chronon is like a DVR for your Java applications. It records every line of code in your program from beginning to end and saves the recording to a file that can be transferred across machines and shared among team members. If you have the Chronon Recording file, you can play back the entire execution of the Java program on your desktop and find the root cause of any issue instantly. A 30-day trial version is available for free download.
ckjm calculates Chidamber and Kemerer object-oriented metrics by processing the bytecode of compiled Java files. The program calculates six metrics for each class and displays them on its standard output.
Cobertura calculates the percentage of code accessed by tests. It can be used to identify which parts of your Java program are lacking test coverage. It can also report on branch coverage and calculate cyclometric complexity.
CocoBase is a sophisticated object-relational mapping tool for providing "transparent persistence" to enterprise applications. It is integrated with many major application servers, IDEs, and modeling tools, and generates Java class files, CMP/BMP entity beans, JSP pages, and servlets.
|CodePro AnalytiX
CodePro AnalytiX is an Eclipse plug-in that audits code for compliance with more than 700 rules and metrics.
CruiseControl is a framework for automating continuous builds and integration. It can monitor your version-control repository, fetch and build your project when the code changes, run the unit tests, and inform you of the results. It includes plug-ins for email notification, Ant, and various source control tools. A web interface is provided for viewing the details of the current and previous builds.
|Crystal Reports for Eclipse
Crystal Reports for Eclipse is an Eclipse plug-in for adding professional, formatted reporting to both thick and thin client Java applications.
DashO is a tool for packaging and obfuscating Java applications and class libraries. It reduces the size of Java class files, and obfuscates constant pool information to make it harder for users to reverse-engineer your classes.
DataVision is an open source reporting tool. Reports can be designed using a drag-and-drop GUI and can be run, viewed, and printed from the application or exported as HTML, XML, PDF, LaTeX2e, DocBook, or tab- or comma-delimited text files, which can in turn be used to produce reports in PDF, text, HTML, or PostScript.
db4o is an open source object database designed to provide a full-featured, embeddable database engine for equipment, mobile, desktop, and server platforms in object-oriented environments.
Programs that modify a database are difficult to regression test. The DbUnit database testing framework is a JUnit extension that sets up your database in a known state before executing your tests, and confirms that the database is in the required state after the test is executed. This enables regression testing of the database side-effects of your classes.
DbVisualizer is a universal database browser. You can view and edit table structures, table contents (data), and indexes for any JDBC database. Can also be used as an interactive SQL shell.
|Direct Web Remoting
dom4j is an easy to use, open source library for working with XML, XPath and XSLT on the Java platform using the Java Collections Framework and with full support for DOM, SAX and JAXP.
Dozer is a JavaBean-to-JavaBean mapper that recursively copies data from one object to another. Dozer supports simple property mapping, complex type mapping, bidirectional mapping, implicit-explicit mapping, as well as recursive mapping.
Dr.Explain is an automated help authoring tool for creating CHM files, HTML help, online manuals, and printable documentation. A free trial version is available for download.
Drone is a Java IRC bot built on the RIFE framework. Drone has a modular API that makes it possible to extend and customize the active feature set easily, as well as a a web administration interface to handle common tasks. Packaged as a WAR, it can be installed by simply dropping it into your servlet container.
Drools is an open source rules-engine implementation based on the Rete algorithm. Drools is designed to allow pluggable rules language implementations. Rules can be written in the Java language, Python, and Groovy.
|Easier Java Persistence (EJP)
EJP is a a persistence API for Java that offers automatic object/relational mapping, automatic handling of all associations, and automatic persistence tracking. EJP doesn't require mapping annotations, XML configuration, extending classes, or implementing interfaces.
EasyMock provides mock objects for interfaces in JUnit tests by generating them on the fly using Java's proxy mechanism.
|eBay SDK for Java
This SDK enables you to use Java to make API calls in the eBay Trading API, which is an XML API.
Eclipse is an open source, extensible IDE platform for developing and debugging applications, entirely written in the Java language. Eclipse is designed to be a unified environment for development, including testing, performance tuning, and debugging in multiple programming languages.
|Eclipse Data Tools Platform
The Eclipse Data Tools Platform (DTP) includes extensible frameworks and exemplary tools, enabling a diverse set of plug-in offerings specific to particular data-centric technologies and supported by the DTP ecosystem.
|Eclipse Pulsar
Pulsar is a tools-integration platform for developers of mobile applications.
|Eclipse SOA Tools Platform
The STP project builds frameworks and exemplary extensible tools that enable the design, configuration, assembly, deployment, monitoring, and management of software designed around a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).
|Eclipse Test and Performance Tools (TPTP)
The TPTP Project provides an open platform supplying frameworks and services that allow software developers to build unique test and performance tools, both open source and commercial, that can be easily integrated with the platform and with other tools.
|Eclipse Web Tools Platform
The Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) Project provides APIs for Java EE and web-centric application development. It includes both source and graphical editors for a variety of languages, wizards and built in applications to simplify Web service development, and tools and APIs to support deploying, running, and testing applications.
The Eclipse Persistence Services Project (EclipseLink) is a comprehensive open source Java persistence solution. EclipseLink focuses on standards with advanced features, performance, and scalability for enterprise software developers across data sources, formats, and containers.
|EclipsePro Test
EclipsePro Test is an Eclipse plug-in for automating JUnit test generation and code coverage analysis.
edtFTPj is an FTP client library that allows any Java application to have full embedded FTP functionality. Most FTP commands are supported, as well as active and passive modes.
egantt is a graphing and charting component which supports the Gantt chart type, typically used in project management tools.
EMMA is an open source toolkit for measuring and reporting Java code coverage. EMMA operates by bytecode instrumentation and can subset coverage instrumentation to focus on a portion of your application. It can track coverage by class, method, line, or basic block, and produces reports in plain text, HTML, or XML.


text:
Dear TeamViewer community,
I've been using TeamViewer for a couple of years now and I mostly use it on my MacBook Pro, currently running osSierra 10.12.5, to remote access my Dell laptop, currently running Windows 10 Enterprise. I always carry my MacBook Pro with me and leave the Dell laptop at home. When I need to access the latter, I use TeamViewer and I've been very happy with this setup during the past years.
Before upgrading to TeamViewer 12.0.78517 on both my MacBook Pro and Dell laptops no later than yesterday, I could listen to music or watch a YouTube video on my Mac even while a remote control session was open to access my Dell laptop.
Since the upgrade, however, as soon as I begin a session, the sound volume on my Mac turns down to a level which almost makes it imperceivable (at first I thought there was no sound at all coming from my Mac). I tried increasing the volume on my Mac, applications and YouTube in all possible ways I could think of, but even with all the sliders set to the maximum, the sound remains way too low... Connecting headphones doesn't resolve the problem either.
As soon as I close the remote session, the volume on my Mac is automagically restored to a normal level.
Anyone else experienced this issue ? Any advice on what I could possibly try, besides uninstalling TeamViewer on both computers and re-install the previous 12.x version ?
Thank you in advance for your kind replies !
Solved! Go to Solution.
Hi all,
We published a new version with a fix. Please install the new version and post your feedback here.
Thank you in advanced
Same problem here. It occurs because for whatever reason, TV is now turning on our webcams/microphones when we make remote control connection. When the webcam/mic is enabled, local media playback volume is automatically lowered. I don't know why TV is now doing this but I am really concerned by this behavior and have filed a ticket with support to try to get to the bottom of it.
Same here (Mac OS X Sierra with TV 12.0.78517) ! It doesn't simply mess up with audio output but with input as well so I can't use Teamspeak or discord and teamviewer at the same time.
I don't even use any of TV sound feature...
Thanks for sharing this with us, @pplaisance
When you say that TV is "turning on" (or initializing them without actually turning them on, possibly?) our webcams and microphones when launching a remote control connection, do you mean those that belong to the remote computer (e.g. the Dell laptop in my example), the local computer (Ex: MacBook Pro) or both?
I'll investigate further at my end. Thanks for pointing this out and let me know if I can be of any assistance (e.g. provide my own settings to the support team) to help you get that ticket resolved quickly.
All the best !
Thanks for sharing this, @RoxTeddy.
Wow, that's quite inconvenient. I haven't tried making a Skype call or similar using my Mac while remote controlling my Dell laptop with TeamViewer. There's a great chance that I'll experience the same symptoms when I'll do...
Let's hope TV's support and maintenance teams will find a solution to this very quickly.
All the best !
Ah, found something interesting.
There's no need to establish a remote connection in order to reproduce the issue.
Right after launching the TeamViewer app on my MacBook Pro, without establishing a remote connection to any computer, if I open up the Preferences window (TeamViewer > Preferences.... from the top menu) and then click on the Audio icon, the sound level is affected immediately. Clicking on any other icon (General, Security, Remote Control, etc., even Video) in this same window restores the sound to its normal level, and vice-versa.
Tried changing all the possible settings under the Audio section, even saving and closing the Preferences window in between each of these changes. Problem persists...
Can any of you guys reproduce this behavior as well ?
Thanks in advance !
Hi everyone!
This is caused by "Audio Ducking". Baiscally, this is caused if you have the VoIP Feature inside the connection turned on. Like many other VoIP services, this lowers the sound of all other output devices during a conversation to allow the Voice to be raised higher than the volume of other programs (As the audio cannot go above max).
If you aren't using TeamViewer VoIP, the only way I can find to stop the audio from lowering is to change the default audio device output for TeamViewer before making a connection as only the audio device it is trying to play through should get ducked.
This can be done under "Audio Confrencing" in the options of TeamViewer
I have tested this and the audio does play at the correct volume during the connection (It does dip just as the connection is being established)
I hope this helps!
No, this does not help. :smileysad:
Change it back to how it was before, please!
There is no "audio conferencing" setting in TeamViewer for Mac preferences that I can find. There is an Audio tab, which will duck the audio when you open, but I've tried every combination of settings imaginable and nothing stops it from activating my webcam's microphone and ducking the audio when making remote connections.
When I make a remote connection from my Mac Mini to any other computer, windows or Mac, TV 11 or 12, the light on my MS Lifecam on my Mac turns on, likely because it has activated its microphone. Audio on my Mac is ducked for the duration of the connection.
Hi @Scotty,
Thanks for joining this thread !
Is this audio ducking feature new on the latest Mac version of TeamViewer (12.0.78517) ? I've never experienced this problem in earlier 12.x versions, but I might have skipped one or two. I didn't write down the version I was using before updating it to 12.0.78517, unfortunately...
You wrote :
«[...] the only way I can find to stop the audio from lowering is to change the default audio device output for TeamViewer before making a connection as only the audio device it is trying to play through should get ducked.
This can be done under "Audio Conferencing" in the options of TeamViewer.»
As @pplaisance already pointed out, the "Audio Conferencing" settings are simply called "Audio" in the Mac version of TeamViewer :
Most of the time, the only audio devices that I use on my MacBook Pro are the built-in microphone and speakes. So I don't have many options regarding the selection of a different audio device, as you suggested, to use for VoIP in TeamViewer. Even if I try to change the devices above from "Built-in In/Out" to "Standard recording/palyback device" and apply the changes :
I also tried clicking on the "Configure" button to change the "Conference Call" settings :
Still no luck, only "duck".... :smileywink:
The ONLY way I was able to circumvent this problem was to attach an external audio device to my Mac and then, after selecting this device for "audio conferencing", I was able to hear sound loud and clear from my built-in speakers (no audio ducking) :
I swear something's changed, as I didn't need to do this in earlier versions. Also, maybe it would be a good idea to add a checkbox allowing users to enable or disable "Audio Conferencing" altogether in TeamViewer, or add an item to the Speakers and Microphone dropdown list named "Disabled" so as to not initialize and apply audio ducking to any audio devices. Just my two cents...
Thank you in advance for considering this as an annoying side-effect, if not a bug, of an otherwise useful feature (for some other users and customers, I guess) you tried to introduce in TeamViewer.
That's actually kind of scary too, isn't it @pplaisance ?
I mean, how can we be sure someone isn't actually hearing audio through the built-in or webcam's microphone or, even worse, accessing the webcam's video feed ?
An unexperienced user may think he's being spied or something while using TeamViewer. **bleep**, had I seen my webcam's led lighting up (which I don't, as the built-in microphone on a MacBookPro isn't linked to the webcam), I would have been quite worried even if I don't consider myself being too paranoid about these things...
Thanks again @pplaisance for your input !!
I fixed the problem by downgrading to a previous v12 build.
I can still reproduce the bug by going into settings > audio. If I had a session opened, I have to close it to get back the sound. If I hadn't, I just have to go the another setting panel or close the settings.
That audio ducking story is weird. I see the interest in limiting other programs sound output to hear the voice over but why would it duck the microphone input too ?
I don't even use any sound feature of TV. No Meeting or Voip. Only remote control with the remote sound disabled.
Obviously, something has changed in the last build that triggers some conference/voip functions that aren't really needed.
Thanks for your input, @RoxTeddy !
I'm thinking about taking that path as well (downgrading TeamViewer to its previous version), although I wasn't sure if it would actually solve the problem. Your post gives me hope that it will.
Thank you !!
This has always been the problem with Teamviewer since I started using it from somewhere around v5. The TeamViewer staff doesn't use Macs themselves and painfully obvious bugs like these keeps coming up every year.
Just look at the moderator answering this thread, he/she gave a direct advice from their PC, in a thread about a Mac problem... :smileysad:
Hi @Ducam,
Thanks for joining the conversation !
I wouldn't know if what you say regarding the TeamViewer staff not using Macs is accurate or not, but one thing is certain, they've done an incredible job with this application so far.
It's fast, has a small footprint on data usage, works beautifully across platforms and it's completely free for personnal use. Yes, I'm totally addicted to it ! :smileywink:
No software is absolutely bug-free. IMHO, the important thing is to see how quickly and diligently the support and development teams react when this type of bugs are reported to them by us, the end users. Let's hope for the best ! :smileyvery-happy:
All the best,
Oh well, I guess I should have posted my message here... I'm sure both reports are related, anyway.
Same problem here (I think). I'm using version 12.0.78517 on OS X Yosemite 10.10.5. I started having this issue yesterday. I was playing some music on Spotify and suddenly the volume was VERY low, I had to increase the system volume to maximum to barely hear anything on the speakers connected to my Mac Mini computer. I first thought that the speakers were broken because I couldn't find anything on the system to change the output mixing/master volume, etc.
But as soon as I closed Teamviewer I got the normal volume again. So it turns out that every time I open a new Teamviewer session with a remote computer, the system volume is barely audible. As soon as you close the remote session, volume goes back to normal (no need to actually exit Teamviewer). I tried to disable the remote audio option while in a session, but it doesn't fix the issue.
Another weird issue, if you go to Preferences > Audio when you have anything playing in the background (Spotify, for example) Teamviewer will either crash or volume will almost mute (until you leave the preferences panel).
If you mess with the volume controls it somehow gets better. You can slide the volume of the Speakers up to the top and the master system volume will increase almost back to normal (not really). But as soon as you close the audio preferences the volume will just boost up to the maximum.
My guess? The volume scale on Teamviewer doesn't match the system's volume. A 100% volume on Teamviewer's audio preferences is about 60-75% of the real system volume. Meaning that if your system volume is at about 25-40%, when you launch a Teamviewer remote session, it will get a -25%-40% "increase", leaving it to almost 0% (mute).
Screenshots of system volume level and Teamviewer's audio preferences (sound barely audible in that scenario, but will go back to normal if I just close the audio preferences or simply switch to another preferences' section). The slider on Teamviewer's audio preferences should be way lower (first/second mark) but it's in the middle:
I'm not sure I can edit my post, so I'm replying to myself (haha). I've played a bit more with the audio preferences and since I've used Soundflower in the past, I thought I should give it a try. By setting the output to Soundflower, everything works fine (this is, of course, related to SkyLukeQc's solution of attaching an external audio device to the computer but without the need to actually have a "physical" device).
I still have a brief "fade-out, fade-in" effect every time I start the first remote session (or I play with the audio preferences) after I have got a remote session active, opening new sessions won't disturb the sound. I also obviously have no sound from the remote sessions.
I'm curious of what would happen if you attach an external USB soundcard and set it as the output device for Teamviewer. I'm sure the system volume would work like a charm while being able to play the remote session's audio through the external soundcard (at what volume, that I don't know). So, again, I'd say there's some bug here with the mixing of Teamviewer and system audio (Teamviewer's volume messing with the system's "master volume" level).
Your solution of changing output might work but most of us have only a single ouput.
I insist that before the last update, if we weren't using Teamviewer voip/conferene part, it was not affecting our experience. I can remember now it always hapenned in conference and thats why I stopped using it but at least the remote control wasnt messing with other programs' sound.
In my opinion, TeamViewer developpers should rollback the code to a previous commit when it was not affecting the remote control.
Which v12 older build? 12.0.75813? I can't seem to find it anywhere to download it... :( My issue is similar, in a way that TeamViewer crashes completely, but the error message points to audio issues:
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000020 Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11 Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb Terminating Process: exc handler [0] /Applications/TeamViewer.app/Contents/MacOS/TeamViewer Application Specific Information: dyld: in dlopen() /System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/MacOS/CoreAudio
Later edit: I uninstalled Boom 2 from www.globaldelight.com, everything is back to normal for me. :)
Hi @Devotee,
Thank you so much for your very useful contribution to this thread !! Using Soundflower was a brillant idea to diagnose the issue and run your tests !
To answer your comment below :
"I'm curious of what would happen if you attach an external USB soundcard and set it as the output device for Teamviewer. I'm sure the system volume would work like a charm while being able to play the remote session's audio through the external soundcard (at what volume, that I don't know)."
Since I do have an external USB sound card available that I can use on my Mac, I'll try to run a few tests later today to see how that works. I'll post my results here as soon as I can.
Kind regards,
Hi @quad_bx,
Thank you for joining this thread and sharing your issues and workarounds with us !!
I can't answer your question about the specific earlier version @RoxTeddy used to "fix" the issue.
In my case, TeamViewer never crashed, at least not in relation to the issue at hand (audio related issue). @Devotee mentioned that TeamViewer would sometime crash in his case. Don't know if the cause and error message were the same for him, however.
Thanks for pointing out the "Boom 2" application, I din't know this app. From my understanding, it allows you (among other things) to "boost" the audio volume coming out of your audio devices beyond their normal max levels, is that correct ? So I can imagine that after installing this app, you're able to boost back up the sound that was ducked by TeamViewer's audio conferencing feature. Does it also add virtual sound devices in a similar way of what Soundflower does ?
I have a few questions that came to mind :
Thank you in advance for your valuable input. I'm sure that with all this info, TeamViewer's team will be able to nail the problem down and correct the issue in the next release.
Actually, it was the other way around. Boom 2 boost audio level by adding a virtual output device and rerouting audio to be boosted. So by UNinstalling it removed said device and now TeamViewer no longer crashes. I was able to make it crash just by visiting Preferences -> Audio tab. It is my understanding that Boom 2 takes control of the audio output device and said device was no longer matching the manually selected TeamViewer audio output device in Preferences. Trying to connect to a remote computer also made it crash.
I have a few questions that came to mind :
Hi @quad_bx,
Oh, sorry. I misread the edit you wrote on your first post.
Uninstalling "Boom 2", not installing it, fixed your problem !!
So now you're basically at the same level as all of us : no more crashes, but sound ducking when starting a remote connection or accessing the Audio settings.
Thank you once again for your valuable input and taking the time to answer all my questions, I appreciate it !!
All the best,
for the version, I rolled back to 12.0.72647 . I have found a page on the official website to get previous major versions (v11, v10..) but not previous v12 builds so google gave me this site instead : http://teamviewer.fr.uptodown.com/mac/old
But I cannot garantee the file are leggit, that's the first time I use this website.
Edit : Oh and for newcomers, as I said the audio ducking happens in this version too but only if you trigger audio/voip functionnalities, not just using remote control. That's pretty much all I need from TeamViewer.
Hi again everyone.
@ apologise, I say audio/confrencing as there is both settings in here. But on Mac the title was shortened due to the lateral layout of options, although we still refer to it as Audio Confrencing internally I apologise for any confusion.
I have tested this on a MacBook Air running Sierra 10.12.1
In my testing, if you change the default audio output in here, the audio still ducks at the beginning of a connection, but then returns to normal. But I can confirm that this behaviour has been occuring well before V12.
@SkyLukeQc Thank you for your calm help on this page, it's fantasic to have users like you :)
@Ducam I am sorry if it seems like we don't care. However I did not test this on a windows device. There would have been no point and if I cared so little, I simply would have let this post be rather than respond.
I do have support looking at this as well and we will monitor for any updates here and I will respond if I can make any headway from our side.
How is it that there is no ability to disable audio conferencing altogether? I have a single audio in source and that is my Skype polycom phone. It starts an audio session when I log into one of my computers via teamviewer. As mentioned above it ducks audio from other sources. It also blocks incoming calls since the phone thinks it is in another call. Since I cant turn the stupid thing off as there is no settings to do so in Teamviewer, this is not sustainable. This is aboslutely rediculous and you guys need to change it back or I will find other option.
Thank you @RoxTeddy !!
"Oh and for newcomers, as I said the audio ducking happens in this version [12.0.72647] too but only if you trigger audio/voip functionnalities, not just using remote control. That's pretty much all I need from TeamViewer."
I agree with you, same here. Rolling back TeamViewer to this pre-12.0.78517 behavior would be ideal for me too as well as many others, IMHO. Even better would be to have a way to disable Audio Conferencing altogether in the Audio preferences panel, at least for those of us that do not need or use this functionality or who'd rather use an external audio conferencing solution, such as Skype or similar for example.
A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread so far !! I believe we've caught the support team's attention. :smileywink:
Also, thank you very much @Scotty for your very nice words. I appreciate it ! :smileyvery-happy:
All the best,
Hello @Mcbrauns,
Thanks for your contribution on the subject at hand.
IMHO, using words such as "stupid" and "ridiculous", or threatening to look for a different solution if a bug isn't solved as quickly as you'd like, isn't very constructive.
The part that is constructive, though, is your description on how you use TeamViewer in conjuction with other software and/or hardware. I believe we all use it a bit differently depending on our own needs. So I'm glad you shared that with us.
Let's keep this thread "clean" by remaining calm. I'm sure something good will come out of it ! :smileywink:
Best regards,
Hi all,
Thank you for your contribution.
I would like to share an update with you which I got from our development.
We got the confirmation that this is a bug in the current version – we are already working on a fix and I will inform you when we published it.
We want to say a big THANK YOU for your feedback because also the input from this thread helped us to identify the problem.
Hi @Julia,
Thank you for sharing this information with us ! These are excellent news !!!
Looking forward to the next release of TeamViewer ! :smileyvery-happy:
All the best,
@RoxTeddy How were you able to get your hands on a previous version? I am having the same problem and want to roll my version back.
Any advice is appreciated
Hello @BB, here's the url I gave earlier :
However I don't know at all if this site is reliable.
Maybe our staff friends @Julia @Scotty have a more leggit way to download earlier versions ? On the official website I see only links to V10 & v11 but no way to get earlier version of v12. I understand you may want to keep most client the most updated as you can but in those case it could be useful to let us rollback. (Before that solution I was about to uninstall TV and find other remote control solution. It would have been a shame ^^)
Cheers from Paris
Rox Teddy
teamviewer.app restored from TimeMachine fixed for me.
Sound was crashing app at login on remote host
Thanks for the tip. I'm fairly new to the mac and never heard of Time Machine before. Unfortunately I hadn't configured it yet. I was able to downgrade with the link @RoxTeddy gave me and it fixed the issue.
Hi @RoxTeddy
Thanks for the link. I downgraded to version 12.0.72647 and it did the trick. What was interesting was I did your test of going to the audio settings in preferences and regardless of the version (12) everytime I click audio in preferences it would start "ducking". So I decided to try connecting remotely and the problem was solved.
Thanks for the info it was a big help. This was driving me crazy!
Cheers for Canton Connecticut U.S.
Hi all,
Please us the following link to download the previous TeamViewer 12 release:
We always recommend to download TeamViewer directly from our homepage or our links.
Dear @Julia,
Thank you very much for this official download link. It's wonderful to see how much you guys at TeamViewer care about your users ! :smileyvery-happy:
I'll downgrade to this version too while waiting for the next version of TeamViewer to be released, in which hopefully the issue reported in this thread will be a thing of the past. :smileywink:
All the best and cheers from Quebec City, Quebec, Canada ! :smileywink:
I found a way not to uninstall Boom2 and still get the right voice.
I installed DPS reflector. And just used that as the audio device in the DPS reflector
Works like a charm
I have the very exact problem as well, quite irritating. Start TeamViewer Preferences, go to Audio tab, and the sound is suddenly 'gone'.....
So I tried it with the teamviewer version for which a download link was provided earlier on in this thread. That however appears to be an even newer version, namely 12.0.75813 (well, assuming a higher number means a more recent version)
So, not surprisingly, that version does not fix the problem for me.
Hi @Jakob !
Thanks for joining the conversation !
Actually, the link posted by @Julia allows you to download TeamViewer 12.0.75813, which is the version that came right before the one in which the audio ducking issue was introduced : 12.0.78517 (and of course 75813 < 78517... :smileywink:)
I downgraded to version 12.0.75813 and the issue no longer occurs on my MBP, unless I go to Preferences and click on the Audio icon... But otherwise, simply starting a remote session won't cause the audio to be ducked as it happens in version 12.0.78517.
If this doesn't work as expected at your end, make sure you completely uninstall TeamViewer from your Mac by going to TeamViewer's Preferences > Advanced, scroll down completely to the bottom and click Uninstall. Then, reinstall TeamViewer 12.0.75813 and give it a second try.
Do not try to open or change the Audio settings unless you really need to (e.g. if you have access to multiple audio devices on your Mac), otherwise the audio ducking issue may be triggered even in this version.
Hope this helps ! :smileyhappy:
same here , only solution is to downgrade, so try mostly everything without success, audio is ducked all the time, as soon as a session is established.
I hope that new update will arrive soon !
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. I scoured the internet for over an hour attempting to solve this problem. I'll be using Julia's link to rollback to the previous version as this sound issue was driving me crazy! I'm a graduate student and I live in an apartment with paper thin walls unfortunately. So, I need my headphones and my volume to drown out the noise when I remote log in to my lab computer(s) and work from home. Thanks for posting this problem and I look forward to the new update.
Same issue here.
I run a program that alerts me whenever an application hijacks the mic ( https://obdev.at/products/microsnitch/index.html )
As of the most recent build I get alerted any time I open Team Viewer that it is taking over the mic. This is when all other sounds get near-muted until I completely exit TeamViewer.
Let me know if there's any info I can provide to help you guys diagnose.
Hi @panckreous !
Thanks for joining the discussion !! :smileyhappy:
Wow, this community really rocks ! Each and everyone who contributed to this thread added useful information that surely helped others as well as TeamViewer's support team isolating the problem. It's really a refreshing experience !! :smileyvery-happy:
Keep up the good work everyone !
Kind regards,
mine does this as well
I solved this problem by changing the output audio setting to Airplay.
Hi @mizu5588,
Nice workaround !! Thanks for sharing this with us ! :smileyhappy:
FWIW, I downgraded to version 12.0.72647 (file dated Feb. 6 2017) that was still in my trash and the issue went away. Thanks all for great input and helping resolve via a simple workaround.
after using my Airplay workaround, i updated to Sierra and now Airplay is no longet an option in the dropdown. Not sure if anyone knows why it is gone in Sierra.


text:
UK prime minister loses Syria war vote, Britain won't be involved in any action
LONDON >> British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes Thursday, a stunning defeat for a government which had been poised to join the U.S. in strikes to punish Bashar Assad's regime for an alleged chemical weapons attack this month.
Cameron's nonbinding motion was defeated 285-272 and he conceded after the vote that "the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action."
The prime minister said in terse comments while he believes in a "tough response" to the use of chemical weapons, he would respect the will of the House of Commons.
At the start of the week, Cameron had seemed ready to join Washington in possible military action against Assad over the alleged chemical weapons attack. But the push for strikes against the Syrian regime began to lose momentum as Britain's Labour Party — still smarting from its ill-fated decision to champion the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — announced its opposition to the move.
Cameron gave concessions, promising to give the U.N. inspectors time to report back to the U.N. Security Council and to do his outmost to secure a resolution there. He also promised to give lawmakers a second vote in a bid to assuage fears that Britain was being rushed into an attack on Assad.
In the end, it wasn't enough to dispel lingering suspicions that what was billed as a limited campaign would turn into an Iraq-style quagmire.
Tony Travers, the director of the government department at the London School of Economics, said Cameron had clearly miscalculated when he brought Parliament back early from its summer recess. He said the move had been unpopular even within Cameron's Conservative Party.
"Clearly this will be seen as a defeat, it suggests he got the politics wrong, both with the opposition and with some members of his own party," Travers said. "It's not great, it's not brilliant, nor is it the end of the world for him. He's lost votes before. It doesn't necessarily stop them taking further action, but they are going to have to start again really."
He said there was "not a lot" of public support for British military activity in Syria.


text:
Instead of keeping to the last 3 years of tradition and showing off iOS 5 at an April preview event and releasing it with iPhone 5 this June, could Apple instead preview it at WWDC and only release it this fall? That's the rumor TechCrunch's MG Siegler has posted tonight:
- iOS 5 will launch in the fall and will be a major revamp of the OS.
- It could well be previewed at WWDC, it just won't be released then.
- The iOS 5 launch is also likely to coincide with the release of a new type of iPad, which we previously reported on.
- The new iOS will be heavily built around the cloud, and we could see several new services launch from Apple that take advantage of this.
- Yes, one of those is very likely a "music locker" service. There is also a fall launch aim for this, during Apple's annual music-themed event.
- But much of the cloud stuff will first be talked about at WWDC, Apple's developer event which will take place in June.
- One of the new cloud service elements is likely a location service that focuses on finding friends and family members.
- As we said yesterday, OS X Lion is still on pace for a summer release — some of the new cloud components are likely to be baked into it as well.
While anything is possible, this doesn't sound very much like Apple. Release numbers are marketing driven, not engineering driven (which is why internal release numbers aren't always the same as external, like Windows 7 actually being Windows 6.1 and Apple TV 4.2.1 actually being Apple TV 4.3.1).
Competition is heating up with Google still iterating Android at a breakneck pace, webOS hitting 2.x and 3.0 this year, and the first BlackBerry QNX-based device shipping next month. Apple going 18 months between iOS refreshes would be perceived as falling behind.
Sure Apple will want to have quite a few "tent pole" features to tout for iOS 5 to be certain, but if any one of them — even cloud connectivity — isn't ready for the spring there's nothing to stop Apple from rolling out a less ambitious iOS 5 in April anyway. Remember, there were rumors iPad 2 would be delayed and it wasn't (it just didn't get a Retina Display.)
(And yes, that does mean that, just like there are rumors of an iPad 3 coming this fall with Retina Display, there may well be iOS 5.1 (or, hey, iOS 6!) rumors for the fall as well.)
So what do you think? Will Apple make us wait an extra 3 months for iOS 5?


text:
A statewide automated external defibrillator system in Maryland requires program sites to register the devices, increasing the likelihood that they can be accessed quickly when needed.
In 2008, when NBC journalist and Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert died as a result of cardiac arrest inside an NBC office, questions emerged about the location and use of an automated external defibrillator (AED). The office building had an AED inside; however, it is unknown how soon after the collapse it was retrieved.
When defibrillation is provided within 5 to 7 minutes of cardiac arrest, the survival rate is 30 to 45 percent, according to the American Heart Association. A victim's chances of survival are reduced by 7 to 10 percent with every minute that passes without CPR and defibrillation.
Instances like Russert's have prompted private organizations and state agencies to provide support to individuals and businesses that choose to purchase and maintain AEDs.
"The Achilles' heel of these devices is that people buy the devices and they may not follow up on maintenance," said Elliot Fisch, president and CEO of Atrus, which specializes in information technology and public access defibrillation. "They set it, and they forget it. An AED doesn't do anyone any good if no one knows where it is in the time needed."
The state of Maryland is working with Atrus to launch an AED registry on Sept. 1. The registry will generate email reminders for users to check the device to ensure it is functioning properly. Registered users will also receive prompts to replace electrode pads and batteries that are nearing their expiration date. Additionally, the state will use Atrus' software AED Link, which will provide registered AED information to 911 dispatchers so they can guide a caller to the nearest device in the event of an emergency.
"We want to work with these good citizens so they can use AEDs successfully," said Dr. Robert R. Bass, Executive Director of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS). "We want to partner with you. We want to know where you are. And we want to pass this info on to the local folks so they know where the AED is."
There are 4,165 active AED program sites in the state. Prior to the new system, each of these sites would receive a maintenance reminder by mail every few years. The database was limited, however, and communication was not automated.
Today, when individuals obtain an AED, they notify MIEMSS and fill out a registration form. In Maryland, someone at each program site is designated responsible for AED maintenance, and receives the email reminders. MIEMSS will also make registration information available to local jurisdictions. In a couple of years, the registrant will receive a reminder to re-register.
The registry is free to users. Should a business or an individual choose to purchase an AED, it is a state mandate to register the device; however, the operator does not have to make the AED available to another facility in the event of an emergency. If the owner makes the device available to others, Maryland's 911 dispatchers will receive location data in real-time, thus enabling dispatchers to communicate AED location information to callers reporting potential cardiac arrest incidents.
Another benefit to Maryland is that registration information is automatically uploaded to the National AED Registry, created and managed by Atrus.
"Even if we don't look at the issue of improved health outcomes, simply from the standpoint of agency workload, this is a great labor saver," Bass said. "This will streamline a process and get more reminders out. It improves the accuracy and efficiency of the registration process. And we're going to look for cases in which this registry is facilitating access to these AEDs. So, we'll be able to measure the health outcomes of this investment."
Controlled areas, such as Las Vegas casinos, report a survival rate of 70 percent from sudden cardiac arrest by making AEDs available and retrieving them in a timely manner. Chicago O'Hare Airport reports a survival rate of more than 60 percent. The national average for survival is about 5 percent. Maryland is taking a proactive step towards increasing its survival rates by adopting a system that encourages people to register and maintain devices.
"We don't fine them if they do not re-register," Bass said. "It's not a driver's license. But it's something that we encourage them to do. It's really to create a system where these AEDs are able to be used if they need to be."
Looking for the latest gov tech news as it happens? Subscribe to GT newsletters.


text:
Rumors of an Android (and iOS for that matter) version of BlackBerry Messenger go way back. We first heard of such possibility at the beginning of March but there was no official confirmation from Research in Motion.
The picture above is allegedly showing off BlackBerry Messenger on Android. The phone is a Blackberry Android Dev Phone with stuck-on buttons but the screen seems to display an early build of RIM's popular Messenger. According to reports, BlackBerry Messenger for Android might be rolled out at BlackBerry DevCon in San Francisco between October 18 – 20. As always with leaks, make sure you're a bit skeptical when judging.