diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d941ac182..2398be5dc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ You are welcome to contribute, add and extend Diaspora however you see fit.  We
 
 We need you to fill out a [contributor agreement form](https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/joindiaspora.com/viewform?formkey=dGI2cHA3ZnNHLTJvbm10LUhXRTJjR0E6MQ&theme=0AX42CRMsmRFbUy1iOGYwN2U2Mi1hNWU0LTRlNjEtYWMyOC1lZmU4ODg1ODc1ODI&ifq) before we can accept your patches.  The agreement gives Diaspora joint ownership of the patch so the copyright isn't scattered.  You can find it [here](https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/joindiaspora.com/viewform?formkey=dGI2cHA3ZnNHLTJvbm10LUhXRTJjR0E6MQ&theme=0AX42CRMsmRFbUy1iOGYwN2U2Mi1hNWU0LTRlNjEtYWMyOC1lZmU4ODg1ODc1ODI&ifq). 
 
-All commits must be tested, and after each commit, all tests should be green before a pull request is sent.  Please write your tests in Rspec or Test-Unit.
+All commits must be tested, and after each commit, all tests should be green before a pull request is sent.  Please write your tests in Rspec.
 
 GEMS:  We would like to keep external dependencies unduplicated.  We're using Nokogiri, and Mongomapper, and EM::HttpRequest as much as possible.  We have a few gems in the project we'd rather not use, but if you can, use dependencies we already have.
 
@@ -195,9 +195,15 @@ If you installed the OsX package through "brew", MongoDB will need to be started
 
 Diaspora will not run unless mongo is running.  Mongo will not run by default, and will need to be started every time you wish to use or run the test suite for Diaspora.
 
+### Run the server
+`./script/server` will start both thin and the websocket server.  If you want to run a different app server, you will have to run them separately.  See below for instructions.
+
 ### Run the app server
 Once mongo is running and bundler has finished, run `bundle exec thin start` from the root Diaspora directory.  This will start the app server in development mode[.](http://bit.ly/9mwtUw)
 
+### Run the websocket server
+run `bundle exec ruby ./script/websocket_server` to start the websocket server on port 8080.  Change the port in config/app_config.yml.
+
 ### Logging in
 Run `rake db:seed:tom`, then login with user `tom` and password `evankorth`. More details in db/seeds/tom.rb.
 
diff --git a/app/controllers/albums_controller.rb b/app/controllers/albums_controller.rb
index c4bab3d8a..dbd59c64e 100644
--- a/app/controllers/albums_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/albums_controller.rb
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ class AlbumsController < ApplicationController
   end
 
   def destroy
-    @album = Album.find_by_id params[:id]
+    @album = current_user.album_by_id params[:id]
     @album.destroy
     flash[:notice] = "Album #{@album.name} deleted."
     respond_with :location => albums_url
@@ -41,12 +41,12 @@ class AlbumsController < ApplicationController
   end
 
   def edit
-    @album = Album.find_by_id params[:id]
+    @album = current_user.album_by_id params[:id]
     redirect_to @album unless current_user.owns? @album
   end
 
   def update
-    @album = Album.find_by_id params[:id]
+    @album = current_user.album_by_id params[:id]
     if @album.update_attributes params[:album]
       flash[:notice] = "Album #{@album.name} successfully edited."
       respond_with @album
diff --git a/app/controllers/users_controller.rb b/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
index 4a36672bc..72666bc30 100644
--- a/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
@@ -7,13 +7,6 @@ class UsersController < ApplicationController
   before_filter :authenticate_user!, :except => [:new, :create]
 
   respond_to :html
-  respond_to :json, :only => :show
-
-  def show
-    @user         = User.find_by_id params[:id]
-    @user_profile = @user.person.profile
-    respond_with @user
-  end
 
   def edit
     @user    = current_user
@@ -23,7 +16,7 @@ class UsersController < ApplicationController
   end
 
   def update
-    @user = User.find_by_id params[:id]
+    @user = current_user
     prep_image_url(params[:user])
 
     @user.update_profile params[:user]
diff --git a/app/models/person.rb b/app/models/person.rb
index ac4a5dfa7..1e2a7b18d 100644
--- a/app/models/person.rb
+++ b/app/models/person.rb
@@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ class Person
         f = Redfinger.finger(identifier)
        rescue SocketError => e
          raise "Diaspora server for #{identifier} not found" if e.message =~ /Name or service not known/
+       rescue Errno::ETIMEDOUT => e
+         raise "Connection timed out to Diaspora server for #{identifier}"
        end
        raise "No webfinger profile found at #{identifier}" if f.nil? || f.links.empty?
        Person.from_webfinger_profile(identifier, f )
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index 718d23674..4ec528e70 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ class User
 
   many :aspects, :class_name => 'Aspect'
 
-
   after_create :seed_aspects
 
   before_validation_on_create :downcase_username
@@ -239,8 +238,7 @@ class User
 
         Rails.logger.info( "the person id is #{object.post_id} the friend found is #{visible_person_by_id(object.post_id).inspect}")
         unfriended_by visible_person_by_id(object.post_id)
-
-      else
+else
         object.perform self.id
         aspects = self.aspects_with_person(object.person)
         aspects.each{ |aspect| aspect.post_ids.delete(object.post_id.to_id)
diff --git a/config/deploy.rb b/config/deploy.rb
index 805eadf4d..c84d25556 100644
--- a/config/deploy.rb
+++ b/config/deploy.rb
@@ -39,8 +39,6 @@ backers.each{ |backer|
 
 # Start Nginx
 after "deploy:cold" do
-  run("nginx stop")
-  run("killall nginx")
   #run("nginx")
 end
 
diff --git a/config/environments/development.rb b/config/environments/development.rb
index 66a0ef31a..e73a3e9d1 100644
--- a/config/environments/development.rb
+++ b/config/environments/development.rb
@@ -21,8 +21,19 @@ Diaspora::Application.configure do
   config.action_controller.perform_caching = false
 
   # Don't care if the mailer can't send
-  config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false
+  config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = true
   config.active_support.deprecation = :log
   config.middleware.use MongoMapper::ClearDevMemory
   #config.threadsafe!
+    config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
+  config.action_mailer.default_url_options = {:host => 'localhost:3000'}
+  config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
+    :address => 'smtp.gmail.com',
+    :port => 587,
+    :domain => 'mail.joindiaspora.com',
+    :authentication => 'plain',
+    :user_name => 'diaspora-pivots@joindiaspora.com',
+    :password => "xy289|]G+R*-kA",
+    :enable_starttls_auto => true
+  }
 end
diff --git a/config/environments/production.rb b/config/environments/production.rb
index 1267a96a3..3207c627d 100644
--- a/config/environments/production.rb
+++ b/config/environments/production.rb
@@ -15,12 +15,12 @@ Diaspora::Application.configure do
   config.action_controller.perform_caching = true
 
   # Specifies the header that your server uses for sending files
-  config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = "X-Sendfile"
+  #config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = "X-Sendfile"
   
   config.active_support.deprecation = :notify
 
   # For nginx:
-  # config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Accel-Redirect'
+   config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Accel-Redirect'
 
   # If you have no front-end server that supports something like X-Sendfile,
   # just comment this out and Rails will serve the files
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Diaspora::Application.configure do
 
   # Disable Rails's static asset server
   # In production, Apache or nginx will already do this
-  config.serve_static_assets = true
+  #config.serve_static_assets = true
 
   # Enable serving of images, stylesheets, and javascripts from an asset server
   # config.action_controller.asset_host = "http://assets.example.com"
@@ -44,12 +44,20 @@ Diaspora::Application.configure do
   # Disable delivery errors, bad email addresses will be ignored
   # config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false
 
-  # Enable threaded mode
-  # config.threadsafe!
-
   # Enable locale fallbacks for I18n (makes lookups for any locale fall back to
   # the I18n.default_locale when a translation can not be found)
   config.i18n.fallbacks = true
   config.threadsafe!
 
+  config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
+  config.action_mailer.default_url_options = {:host => 'pivots.joindiaspora.com'}
+  config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
+    :address => 'smtp.gmail.com',
+    :port => 587,
+    :domain => 'mail.joindiaspora.com',
+    :authentication => 'plain',
+    :user_name => 'diaspora-pivots@joindiaspora.com',
+    :password => "xy289|]G+R*-kA",
+    :enable_starttls_auto => true
+  }
 end
diff --git a/config/routes.rb b/config/routes.rb
index 12dd20ba7..188c4b137 100644
--- a/config/routes.rb
+++ b/config/routes.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 Diaspora::Application.routes.draw do
   resources :people, :only => [:index, :show, :destroy]
-  resources :users, :except => [:create, :new]
+  resources :users, :except => [:create, :new, :show]
   resources :status_messages, :only => [:create, :destroy, :show]
   resources :comments, :except => [:index]
   resources :requests, :except => [:edit, :update]
diff --git a/config/sprinkle/conf/nginx.conf b/config/sprinkle/conf/nginx.conf
index 2b3aa8a40..eba9fa45b 100644
--- a/config/sprinkle/conf/nginx.conf
+++ b/config/sprinkle/conf/nginx.conf
@@ -33,12 +33,14 @@ http {
  # gzip_disable      "MSIE [1-6]\.(?!.*SV1)";
   upstream thin_cluster {
   server unix:/tmp/thin.0.sock;
+  server unix:/tmp/thin.1.sock;
+  server unix:/tmp/thin.2.sock;
   }
 
   server {
 
    listen       80;
-   server_name  babycakes.sofaer.net www.babycakes.sofaer.net;
+   server_name  pivots.joindiaspora.com www.pivots.joindiaspora.com;
    root /usr/local/app/diaspora/current;
 
    location / {
diff --git a/config/sprinkle/provision.rb b/config/sprinkle/provision.rb
index ce0fd7374..fc81b1ca3 100644
--- a/config/sprinkle/provision.rb
+++ b/config/sprinkle/provision.rb
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ require '#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/packages/server'
 require '#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/packages/scm'
 require '#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/packages/ruby'
 
-policy :diaspora, :roles => [:tom,:backer] do
+policy :diaspora, :roles => [:pivots] do
 #  requires :clean_dreamhost
   requires :tools
   requires :rubygems
diff --git a/config/thin.yml b/config/thin.yml
index cc071975d..b0a3abf8d 100644
--- a/config/thin.yml
+++ b/config/thin.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ max_conns: 1024
 require: []
 
 max_persistent_conns: 512
-environment: development 
+environment: production
 servers: 1
 daemonize: true
 #chdir: /usr/applications/localhash/current
diff --git a/db/seeds/tom.rb b/db/seeds/tom.rb
index af6f737a9..2e06913f2 100644
--- a/db/seeds/tom.rb
+++ b/db/seeds/tom.rb
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 require 'config/environment'
 
 remote_url = "http://tom.joindiaspora.com/"
+remote_url = "http://localhost:3000/"
 # Create seed user
 user = User.instantiate!( :email => "tom@tom.joindiaspora.com",
                      :username => "tom",
diff --git a/script/server b/script/server
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..0094482b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/script/server
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+mkdir -p -v log/thin/
+bundle exec ruby ./script/websocket_server.rb&
+bundle exec thin start $@
diff --git a/script/websocket_server.rb b/script/websocket_server.rb
index 7dee8d35c..2fbc1370a 100644
--- a/script/websocket_server.rb
+++ b/script/websocket_server.rb
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ def process_message
 
 end
 
+begin
   EM.run {
     Diaspora::WebSocket.initialize_channels
 
@@ -35,7 +36,13 @@ end
         ws.onclose { Diaspora::WebSocket.unsubscribe(ws.request['Path'].gsub('/',''), sid) }
       }
     end
+
     puts "Websocket server started."
     process_message
   }
-
+rescue RuntimeError => e
+  raise e unless e.message.include?("no acceptor")
+  puts "Are you sure the websocket server isn't already running?"
+  puts "Just start thin with bundle exec thin start."
+  Process.exit
+end
diff --git a/spec/factories.rb b/spec/factories.rb
index 4c59631d8..c1dfcd50a 100644
--- a/spec/factories.rb
+++ b/spec/factories.rb
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ end
 
 Factory.define :user do |u|
   u.sequence(:username) {|n| "bob#{n}"}
-  u.sequence(:email) {|n| "bob#{n}@aol.com"}
+  u.sequence(:email) {|n| "bob#{n}@pivotallabs.com"}
   u.password "bluepin7"
   u.password_confirmation "bluepin7"
   u.person { |a| Factory.create(:person_with_user, :owner_id => a._id)}
diff --git a/spec/lib/websocket_spec.rb b/spec/lib/websocket_spec.rb
index 762a725b5..018f5020d 100644
--- a/spec/lib/websocket_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/websocket_spec.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ describe Diaspora::WebSocket do
     @user = Factory.create(:user)
     @aspect = @user.aspect(:name => "losers")
     @post = @user.build_post(:status_message, :message => "hey", :to => @aspect.id)
+    unstub_sockets
   end
 
   it 'should queue a job' do
@@ -16,10 +17,21 @@ describe Diaspora::WebSocket do
     @post.socket_to_uid(@user.id, :aspect_ids => @aspect.id)
   end
 
-  it 'The queued job should reach Magent' do
-    @post.socket_to_uid(@user.id, :aspect_ids => @aspect.id)
-    channel = Magent::GenericChannel.new('websocket')
-    channel.message_count.should == 1
+  describe 'queuing and dequeuing ' do
+    before do
+      @post.socket_to_uid(@user.id, :aspect_ids => @aspect.id)
+      @channel = Magent::GenericChannel.new('websocket')
+    end
+
+    it 'should send the queued job to Magent' do
+      @channel.message_count.should == 1
+    end
+
+    it 'should dequeue the job successfully' do
+      messages = @channel.message_count
+      @channel.dequeue
+      @channel.message_count.should == messages -1
+    end
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/spec/models/album_spec.rb b/spec/models/album_spec.rb
index 189361622..ed13ba102 100644
--- a/spec/models/album_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/album_spec.rb
@@ -2,87 +2,81 @@
 #   licensed under the Affero General Public License version 3.  See
 #   the COPYRIGHT file.
 
-
-
-require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../spec_helper'
+require 'spec_helper'
 
 describe Album do
-  before do
-    @fixture_name = File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../fixtures/button.png'
-    @user = Factory.create(:user)
-    @user.person.save
-    @aspect = @user.aspect(:name => "Foo")
-    @album = @user.post(:album, :name => "test collection", :to => @aspect.id)
+  let(:user) { Factory.create(:user) }
+  let(:person) { user.person }
+  let(:aspect) { user.aspect(:name => "Foo") }
+  let(:album) { user.post(:album, :name => "test collection", :to => aspect.id) }
+
+  it 'is valid' do
+    album.should be_valid
   end
 
-  it 'should require a name' do
-    @album.name = "test collection"
-    @album.valid?.should be true
-
-    @album.name = nil
-    @album.valid?.should be false
+  it 'validates presence of a name' do
+    album.name = nil
+    album.should_not be_valid
   end
 
-  it 'should contain photos' do
-    photo = Factory.build(:photo, :person => @user.person)
-
-    @album.photos << photo
-    @album.photos.count.should == 1
+  it 'has many photos' do
+    album.associations[:photos].type == :many
   end
 
-  it 'should remove all photos on album delete' do
-      photos = []
-      1.upto 3 do
-        photo =   Photo.new(:person => @user.person, :album => @album, :created_at => Time.now)
-        photo.image.store! File.open @fixture_name
-        photos << photo
-      end
-      @album.photos += photos
-
-      Photo.all.count.should == 3
-      @album.destroy
-      Photo.all.count.should == 0
-  end
-
-  describe 'traversing' do
+  context 'when an album has two attached images' do
     before do
-      @photos = []
-      1.upto 3 do |n|
-        photo =   Photo.new(:person => @user.person, :album => @album, :created_at => Time.now + n)
-        photo.image.store! File.open @fixture_name
-        @photos << photo
+      2.times do
+        photo = Factory.build(:photo, :person => person, :album => album)
+        album.photos << photo
       end
-      @album.photos += @photos
     end
 
-    it 'should traverse the album correctly' do
-      #should retrieve the next photo relative to a given photo
-      @album.next_photo(@photos[1]).id.should == @photos[2].id
-
-      #should retrieve the previous photo relative to a given photo
-      @album.prev_photo(@photos[1]).id.should == @photos[0].id
-
-      #wrapping
-      #does next photo of last to first
-      @album.next_photo(@photos[2]).id.should == @photos[0].id
-
-      #does previous photo of first to last
-      @album.prev_photo(@photos[0]).id.should == @photos[2].id
+    context 'when the album is deleted' do
+      it 'removes all child photos' do
+        expect{ album.destroy }.to change(Photo, :count).from(2).to(0)
+      end
     end
   end
 
-  describe 'serialization' do
-    before do
-      @xml = @album.to_xml.to_s
+  context 'traversing photos' do
+    let(:attrs)    { {:person => person, :album => album} }
+    let!(:photo_1) { Factory(:photo, attrs.merge(:created_at => 2.days.ago)) }
+    let!(:photo_2) { Factory(:photo, attrs.merge(:created_at => 1.day.ago)) }
+    let!(:photo_3) { Factory(:photo, attrs.merge(:created_at => Time.now)) }
+
+    describe '#next_photo' do
+      it 'returns the next photo' do
+        album.next_photo(photo_1).id.should == photo_2.id
+      end
+
+      it 'returns the first photo when given the last photo in the album' do
+        album.next_photo(photo_3).id.should == photo_1.id
+      end
     end
-    it 'should have a person' do
-      @xml.include?(@album.person.id.to_s).should be true
+
+    describe '#prev_photo' do
+      it 'returns the previous photo' do
+        album.prev_photo(photo_2).id.should == photo_1.id
+      end
+
+      it 'returns the last photo when given the first photo in the album' do
+        album.prev_photo(photo_1).id.should == photo_3.id
+      end
     end
-    it 'should have a name' do
-      @xml.include?(@album.name).should be true
+  end
+
+  describe '#to_xml' do
+    let(:doc) { album.to_xml }
+    it 'has a name' do
+      doc.at_xpath('./name').text.should == album.name
     end
-    it 'should have an id' do
-      @xml.include?(@album.id.to_s).should be true
+
+    it 'has an id' do
+      doc.at_xpath('./_id').text.should == album.id.to_s
+    end
+
+    it 'includes the person' do
+      doc.at_xpath('./person/_id').text.should == album.person.id.to_s
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/models/request_spec.rb b/spec/models/request_spec.rb
index 72a3b8dc1..5899cb7fb 100644
--- a/spec/models/request_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/request_spec.rb
@@ -19,8 +19,7 @@ describe Request do
     person_request.valid?.should be true
   end
 
-  it 'should generate xml for the User as a Person' do
-
+  it 'should generate xml for the User as a Person' do 
     request = @user.send_friend_request_to Factory.create(:person), @aspect
 
     xml = request.to_xml.to_s
diff --git a/spec/models/user_spec.rb b/spec/models/user_spec.rb
index 6e8355021..223881671 100644
--- a/spec/models/user_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/user_spec.rb
@@ -11,6 +11,15 @@ describe User do
       @user = Factory.create(:user)
       @aspect = @user.aspect(:name => 'heroes')
    end
+  
+  it 'should create with pivotal or allowed emails' do
+    user1 = Factory.create(:user, :email => "kimfuh@yahoo.com")
+    user2 = Factory.create(:user, :email => "awesome@sofaer.net")
+    user3 = Factory.create(:user, :email => "steveellis@pivotallabs.com")
+    user1.created_at.nil?.should be false
+    user2.created_at.nil?.should be false
+    user3.created_at.nil?.should be false
+  end
 
   describe 'profiles' do
     it 'should be able to update their profile and send it to their friends' do
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 9d6317d30..3fdac9810 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ RSpec.configure do |config|
   config.before(:each) do
     DatabaseCleaner.start
     stub_sockets
+    User.stub!(:allowed_email?).and_return(:true)
   end
 
   config.after(:each) do
@@ -45,11 +46,17 @@ RSpec.configure do |config|
   end
 end
   def stub_sockets
-    Diaspora::WebSocket.stub!(:push_to_user).and_return(true)
+    Diaspora::WebSocket.stub!(:queue_to_user).and_return(true)
     Diaspora::WebSocket.stub!(:subscribe).and_return(true)
     Diaspora::WebSocket.stub!(:unsubscribe).and_return(true)
   end
 
+  def unstub_sockets
+    Diaspora::WebSocket.unstub!(:queue_to_user)
+    Diaspora::WebSocket.unstub!(:subscribe)
+    Diaspora::WebSocket.unstub!(:unsubscribe)
+  end
+
   def stub_signature_verification
     (get_models.map{|model| model.camelize.constantize} - [User]).each do |model|
       model.any_instance.stubs(:verify_signature).returns(true)