diff --git a/embedded-repo/se/foldleft/cassidy/0.1/cassidy-0.1.jar b/embedded-repo/se/foldleft/cassidy/0.1/cassidy-0.1.jar
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..ec7e313eac
Binary files /dev/null and b/embedded-repo/se/foldleft/cassidy/0.1/cassidy-0.1.jar differ
diff --git a/embedded-repo/se/foldleft/cassidy/0.1/cassidy-0.1.pom b/embedded-repo/se/foldleft/cassidy/0.1/cassidy-0.1.pom
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..35af36dcb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/embedded-repo/se/foldleft/cassidy/0.1/cassidy-0.1.pom
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
+   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+   <groupId>org.apache.camel</groupId>
+   <artifactId>camel-core</artifactId>
+   <version>2.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+   <packaging>jar</packaging>
+</project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/kernel/Makefile b/kernel/Makefile
index da4319e300..3c8c4cce60 100755
--- a/kernel/Makefile
+++ b/kernel/Makefile
@@ -2,5 +2,5 @@
 # mvn -o <target> |sed -e s/\\[WARNING\\][[:space:]]//g |grep -v "Finished at"
 
 install:
-		mvn -o scala:compile |sed -e 's/\[INFO\] //g' |sed -e 's/\[WARNING\] //g' |grep -v "Finished at" |grep -v "Total time"
+		mvn -o compile |sed -e 's/\[INFO\] //g' |sed -e 's/\[WARNING\] //g' |grep -v "Finished at" |grep -v "Total time"
 
diff --git a/kernel/pom.xml b/kernel/pom.xml
index 3c4295eaaa..fd13176fcd 100644
--- a/kernel/pom.xml
+++ b/kernel/pom.xml
@@ -120,6 +120,11 @@
       <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId>
       <version>2.4</version>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>se.foldleft</groupId>
+      <artifactId>cassidy</artifactId>
+      <version>0.1</version>
+    </dependency>
 
     <!-- For Jersey -->
     <dependency>
diff --git a/kernel/src/main/scala/Boot.scala b/kernel/src/main/scala/Boot.scala
index b9c2110c97..ded1c1c732 100644
--- a/kernel/src/main/scala/Boot.scala
+++ b/kernel/src/main/scala/Boot.scala
@@ -15,7 +15,11 @@ import kernel.util.Logging
  */
 object Boot extends Logging {
 
-  val HOME = try { System.getenv("AKKA_HOME") } catch { case e: NullPointerException => throw new IllegalStateException("AKKA_HOME system variable needs to be set. Should point to the root of the Akka distribution.") }
+  val HOME = {
+    val home = System.getenv("AKKA_HOME")
+    if (home == null) throw new IllegalStateException("No 'AKKA_HOME' environment variable set. You have to set 'AKKA_HOME' to the root of the Akka distribution.")
+    else home
+  }
   val CLASSES = HOME + "/kernel/target/classes" // FIXME remove for dist
   val LIB = HOME + "/lib"
   val CONFIG = HOME + "/config"
diff --git a/kernel/src/main/scala/Kernel.scala b/kernel/src/main/scala/Kernel.scala
index 80b268198f..84d87fd2f4 100644
--- a/kernel/src/main/scala/Kernel.scala
+++ b/kernel/src/main/scala/Kernel.scala
@@ -24,7 +24,9 @@ import kernel.util.Logging
  */
 object Kernel extends Logging {
   @volatile private var hasBooted = false
-  
+
+  Boot.HOME
+
   val config = setupConfig
 
   val BOOT_CLASSES = config.getList("akka.boot")
@@ -117,8 +119,7 @@ object Kernel extends Logging {
   private[akka] def startCassandra = if (config.getBool("akka.storage.cassandra.service", true)) {
     System.setProperty("cassandra", "")
     System.setProperty("storage-config", akka.Boot.CONFIG + "/")
-    println("------------------------- " + akka.Boot.CONFIG + "/")
-    CassandraStorage.start
+   CassandraStorage.start
   }
 
   private[akka] def startJersey = {
diff --git a/kernel/src/main/scala/actor/Actor.scala b/kernel/src/main/scala/actor/Actor.scala
index 1975440bc4..e310f1caee 100644
--- a/kernel/src/main/scala/actor/Actor.scala
+++ b/kernel/src/main/scala/actor/Actor.scala
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ object Actor {
   private[this] val remoteFlagLock = new ReadWriteLock
   private[this] val transactionalFlagLock = new ReadWriteLock
 
-
   private var hotswap: Option[PartialFunction[Any, Unit]] = None
   private var config: Option[AnyRef] = None
   @volatile protected[this] var isTransactional = false
diff --git a/kernel/src/main/scala/serialization/Serializer.scala b/kernel/src/main/scala/serialization/Serializer.scala
index 2baec56bf9..12284067e0 100644
--- a/kernel/src/main/scala/serialization/Serializer.scala
+++ b/kernel/src/main/scala/serialization/Serializer.scala
@@ -138,6 +138,8 @@ object Serializer {
     def out[T](t : T)(implicit bin : Writes[T]): Array[Byte] = toByteArray[T](t)
 
     def in[T](array : Array[Byte], clazz: Option[Class[T]])(implicit bin : Reads[T]): T = fromByteArray[T](array)
+ 
+    def in[T](array : Array[Byte])(implicit bin : Reads[T]): T = fromByteArray[T](array)
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/kernel/src/main/scala/state/CassandraStorage.scala b/kernel/src/main/scala/state/CassandraStorage.scala
index b065f87e03..151d37126a 100644
--- a/kernel/src/main/scala/state/CassandraStorage.scala
+++ b/kernel/src/main/scala/state/CassandraStorage.scala
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ object CassandraStorage extends Logging {
   val MAP_COLUMN_FAMILY = "map"
   val VECTOR_COLUMN_FAMILY = "vector"
   val REF_COLUMN_FAMILY = "ref:item"
+
   val IS_ASCENDING = true
 
   val RUN_THRIFT_SERVICE = kernel.Kernel.config.getBool("akka.storage.cassandra.thrift-server.service", false)
@@ -49,7 +50,7 @@ object CassandraStorage extends Logging {
       case unknown =>      throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Unknown storage serialization protocol [" + unknown + "]")
     }
   }
-  
+ 
   // TODO: is this server thread-safe or needed to be wrapped up in an actor?
   private[this] val server = classOf[CassandraServer].newInstance.asInstanceOf[CassandraServer]
 
diff --git a/lib/cassidy-0.1.jar b/lib/cassidy-0.1.jar
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..ec7e313eac
Binary files /dev/null and b/lib/cassidy-0.1.jar differ