diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 7f5debe86..c87fa7348 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ gem 'chef', '0.9.12', :require => false
 
 gem 'nokogiri', '1.4.3.1'
 
+gem "fog"
+
 #Security
 gem 'devise', '1.1.3'
 gem 'devise_invitable','0.3.5'
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 57f1ce8e9..7c25f3f7b 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -146,6 +146,7 @@ GEM
     erubis (2.6.6)
       abstract (>= 1.0.0)
     eventmachine (0.12.10)
+    excon (0.3.4)
     extlib (0.9.15)
     factory_girl (1.3.3)
     factory_girl_rails (1.0.1)
@@ -161,6 +162,16 @@ GEM
     fastthread (1.0.7)
     ffi (0.6.3)
       rake (>= 0.8.7)
+    fog (0.3.25)
+      builder
+      excon (>= 0.2.4)
+      formatador (>= 0.0.16)
+      json
+      mime-types
+      net-ssh (~> 2.0.23)
+      nokogiri (~> 1.4.3.1)
+      ruby-hmac
+    formatador (0.0.16)
     gem_plugin (0.2.3)
     gherkin (2.3.3)
       json (~> 1.4.6)
@@ -204,6 +215,7 @@ GEM
     multipart-post (1.1.0)
     mysql2 (0.2.6)
     net-ldap (0.1.1)
+    net-ssh (2.0.23)
     nokogiri (1.4.3.1)
     oa-basic (0.1.6)
       multi_json (~> 0.0.2)
@@ -298,6 +310,7 @@ GEM
       ruby-debug-base (~> 0.10.4.0)
     ruby-debug-base (0.10.4)
       linecache (>= 0.3)
+    ruby-hmac (0.4.0)
     ruby-openid (2.1.8)
     ruby-openid-apps-discovery (1.2.0)
       ruby-openid (>= 2.1.7)
@@ -359,6 +372,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   factory_girl_rails
   fastercsv (= 1.5.4)
   haml (= 3.0.25)
+  fog
   http_accept_language!
   jammit (= 0.5.4)
   jasmine!
diff --git a/app/models/photo.rb b/app/models/photo.rb
index e5e8e40c3..7faff65a7 100644
--- a/app/models/photo.rb
+++ b/app/models/photo.rb
@@ -6,9 +6,11 @@ class Photo < Post
   require 'carrierwave/orm/activerecord'
   mount_uploader :image, ImageUploader
 
-  xml_attr :remote_photo
-  xml_attr :caption
-  xml_attr :status_message_id
+  xml_reader :remote_photo_path
+  xml_reader :remote_photo_name
+
+  xml_reader :caption
+  xml_reader :status_message_id
 
   belongs_to :status_message
 
@@ -17,7 +19,6 @@ class Photo < Post
 
   before_destroy :ensure_user_picture
 
-  #before_destroy :delete_parent_if_no_photos_or_message
   def ownership_of_status_message
     message = StatusMessage.find_by_id(self.status_message_id)
     if status_message_id && message
@@ -33,25 +34,28 @@ class Photo < Post
     photo.random_string = gen_random_string(10)
 
     photo.image.store! image_file
-    photo
-  end
 
-  def remote_photo
-    image.url.nil? ? (remote_photo_path + '/' + remote_photo_name) : image.url
-  end
+    unless photo.image.url.match(/^https?:\/\//)
+      pod_url = APP_CONFIG[:pod_url].dup
+      pod_url.chop! if APP_CONFIG[:pod_url][-1,1] == '/'
+      remote_path = "#{pod_url}#{photo.image.url}"
+    else
+      remote_path = photo.image.url
+    end
 
-  def remote_photo= remote_path
     name_start = remote_path.rindex '/'
-    self.remote_photo_path = remote_path.slice(0, name_start )
-    self.remote_photo_name = remote_path.slice(name_start + 1, remote_path.length)
+    photo.remote_photo_path = "#{remote_path.slice(0, name_start)}/"
+    photo.remote_photo_name = remote_path.slice(name_start + 1, remote_path.length)
+
+    photo
   end
 
   def url(name = nil)
     if remote_photo_path
-      name = name.to_s + "_" if name
-      person.url.chop + remote_photo_path + "/" + name.to_s + remote_photo_name
+      name = name.to_s + '_' if name
+      remote_photo_path + name.to_s + remote_photo_name
     else
-      image.url name
+      image.url(name)
     end
   end
 
@@ -71,17 +75,6 @@ class Photo < Post
     true
   end
 
-  def save_update updated_post
-    self.caption = updated_post.caption
-    self.save
-  end
-
-  def absolute_url *args
-    pod_url = AppConfig[:pod_url].dup
-    pod_url.chop! if AppConfig[:pod_url][-1,1] == '/'
-    "#{pod_url}#{url(*args)}"
-  end
-
   def self.gen_random_string(len)
     chars = ("a".."z").to_a + ("A".."Z").to_a + ("0".."9").to_a
     string = ""
@@ -89,10 +82,11 @@ class Photo < Post
     return string
   end
 
+
   def as_json(opts={})
     {
-      :photo => {
-        :id => self.id,
+    :photo => {
+      :id => self.id,
         :url => self.url(:thumb_medium),
         :thumb_small => self.url(:thumb_small),
         :caption => self.caption
diff --git a/app/models/profile.rb b/app/models/profile.rb
index 47d709e84..f0b5865e2 100644
--- a/app/models/profile.rb
+++ b/app/models/profile.rb
@@ -56,29 +56,17 @@ class Profile < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   def image_url= url
     return image_url if url == ''
-    if url.nil? || url.match(/^https?:\/\//)
-      super(url)
-    else
-      super(absolutify_local_url(url))
-    end
+    super(url)
   end
 
   def image_url_small= url
     return image_url if url == ''
-    if url.nil? || url.match(/^https?:\/\//)
-      super(url)
-    else
-      super(absolutify_local_url(url))
-    end
+    super(url)
   end
 
   def image_url_medium= url
     return image_url if url == ''
-    if url.nil? || url.match(/^https?:\/\//)
-      super(url)
-    else
-      super(absolutify_local_url(url))
-    end
+    super(url)
   end
 
   def date= params
@@ -98,10 +86,4 @@ class Profile < ActiveRecord::Base
     self.last_name.strip! if self.last_name
   end
 
-  private
-  def absolutify_local_url url
-    pod_url = AppConfig[:pod_url].dup
-    pod_url.chop! if AppConfig[:pod_url][-1,1] == '/'
-    "#{pod_url}#{url}"
-  end
 end
diff --git a/config/database.yml b/config/database.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..30dcd4324
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/database.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+test:
+  adapter: mysql2
+  database: diaspora_test
+  user: root
+  password: password
+development:
+  adapter: mysql2
+  database: diaspora_development
+  user: root
+  password: password
diff --git a/config/initializers/carrierwave.rb b/config/initializers/carrierwave.rb
index 0451db212..d8d555df7 100644
--- a/config/initializers/carrierwave.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/carrierwave.rb
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@
 #   the COPYRIGHT file.
 
 CarrierWave.configure do |config|
-  if ENV['S3_KEY'] && ENV['S3_SECRET'] && ENV['S3_BUCKET']
+  if APP_CONFIG[:s3_key] && APP_CONFIG[:s3_secret] && APP_CONFIG[:s3_bucket]
     config.storage = :s3
-    config.s3_access_key_id = ENV['S3_KEY']
-    config.s3_secret_access_key = ENV['S3_SECRET']
-    config.s3_bucket = ENV['S3_BUCKET']
+    config.s3_access_key_id = APP_CONFIG[:s3_key]
+    config.s3_secret_access_key = APP_CONFIG[:s3_secret]
+    config.s3_bucket = APP_CONFIG[:s3_bucket]
     config.cache_dir = "#{Rails.root}/tmp/uploads"
   else
     config.storage = :file
diff --git a/spec/models/photo_spec.rb b/spec/models/photo_spec.rb
index c628514ae..d2aa63572 100644
--- a/spec/models/photo_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/photo_spec.rb
@@ -54,7 +54,13 @@ describe Photo do
       photo.created_at.nil?.should be_true
       photo.image.read.nil?.should be_false
     end
-
+    it 'sets a remote url' do
+      image = File.open(@fixture_name)
+      photo = Photo.instantiate(
+                :person => @user.person, :user_file => image)
+      photo.remote_photo_path.should include("http")
+      photo.remote_photo_name.should include(".png")
+    end
   end
 
   it 'should save a photo' do
@@ -82,7 +88,7 @@ describe Photo do
     it 'should remove its reference in user profile if it is referred' do
       @photo.save
 
-      @user.profile.image_url = @photo.image.url(:thumb_large)
+      @user.profile.image_url = @photo.url(:thumb_large)
       @user.person.save
       @photo.destroy
       Person.find(@user.person.id).profile.image_url.should be_nil
@@ -111,7 +117,8 @@ describe Photo do
       @xml = @photo.to_xml.to_s
     end
     it 'serializes the url' do
-      @xml.include?(@photo.image.url).should be true
+      @xml.include?(@photo.remote_photo_path).should be true
+      @xml.include?(@photo.remote_photo_name).should be true
     end
     it 'serializes the diaspora_handle' do
       @xml.include?(@user.diaspora_handle).should be true
diff --git a/spec/models/profile_spec.rb b/spec/models/profile_spec.rb
index 3695223f2..863785126 100644
--- a/spec/models/profile_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/profile_spec.rb
@@ -52,18 +52,16 @@ describe Profile do
       lambda {@profile.image_url = ""}.should_not change(@profile, :image_url)
     end
     it 'makes relative urls absolute' do
-      @profile.image_url = "/relative/url"
-      @profile.image_url.should == "#{@pod_url}/relative/url"
-    end
-    it "doesn't change absolute urls" do
-      @profile.image_url = "http://not/a/relative/url"
-      @profile.image_url.should == "http://not/a/relative/url"
+      @profile.image_url = @photo.url(:thumb_large)
+
+      @profile.image_url.should == @photo.url(:thumb_large)
     end
   end
-
   describe 'serialization' do
-    it "includes the person's diaspora handle if it doesn't have one" do
-      person = Factory(:person, :diaspora_handle => "foobar")
+    let(:person) {Factory.create(:person)}
+
+    it 'should include persons diaspora handle' do
+      xml = person.profile.to_diaspora_xml
       xml = person.profile.to_diaspora_xml
       xml.should include "foobar"
     end
diff --git a/spec/models/user_spec.rb b/spec/models/user_spec.rb
index bcb56d95c..a7df19be0 100644
--- a/spec/models/user_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/user_spec.rb
@@ -288,9 +288,9 @@ describe User do
       end
       it 'updates image_url' do
         user.update_profile(@params).should be_true
-        user.reload.profile.image_url.should == @photo.absolute_url(:thumb_large)
-        user.profile.image_url_medium.should == @photo.absolute_url(:thumb_medium)
-        user.profile.image_url_small.should == @photo.absolute_url(:thumb_small)
+        user.reload.profile.image_url.should == @photo.url(:thumb_large)
+        user.profile.image_url_medium.should == @photo.url(:thumb_medium)
+        user.profile.image_url_small.should == @photo.url(:thumb_small)
       end
       it 'unpends the photo' do
         @photo.pending = true