diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 38483ef..e69de29 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-cassandra
-data
diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 0178827..8b9ddcc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 
+v0.5.1. Add bin/cassandra script, to build and start the server for you.
+
 v0.5. More API changes. Working temporal comparators.
 
 v0.4. Use new comparator API. Namespace Thrift bindings; rename gem and class to Cassandra. Make tokens and limits actually work. Retry UnavailableExceptions.
diff --git a/Manifest b/Manifest
index 6acf3c9..3f51063 100644
--- a/Manifest
+++ b/Manifest
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+bin/cassandra_helper
 CHANGELOG
 conf/cassandra.in.sh
 conf/log4j.properties
diff --git a/README b/README
index 78d3974..d7b3c4c 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -25,12 +25,14 @@ You need Ruby 1.8 or 1.9. If you have those, just run:
 
   sudo gem install cassandra
   
-== Usage
-
-Cassandra is a rapidly moving target. In order to get a working server, change to the checkout or gem directory, and run:
+Cassandra is a rapidly moving target. In order to get a working server, use the <tt>bin/cassandra_helper</tt> script (requires <tt>git</tt>):
 
-  rake cassandra 
+  cassandra_helper cassandra
+  
+A server will be installed in <tt>$HOME/cassandra/r$REVISION</tt>, and started in debug mode.
 
+== Usage
+  
 Now, start IRb and require the library:
   
   require 'cassandra'
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index db39530..e8f3319 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,48 +1,71 @@
-require 'echoe'
 
-Echoe.new("cassandra") do |p|
-  p.author = "Evan Weaver"
-  p.project = "fauna"
-  p.summary = "A Ruby client for the Cassandra distributed database."
-  p.rubygems_version = ">= 0.8"
-  p.dependencies = ['json', 'thrift']
-  p.ignore_pattern = /^(data|vendor\/cassandra|cassandra|vendor\/thrift)/
-  p.rdoc_pattern = /^(lib|bin|tasks|ext)|^README|^CHANGELOG|^TODO|^LICENSE|^COPYING$/
-  p.url = "http://blog.evanweaver.com/files/doc/fauna/cassandra/"
-  p.docs_host = "blog.evanweaver.com:~/www/bax/public/files/doc/"
-end
+unless ENV['FROM_BIN_CASSANDRA_HELPER']
+  require 'rubygems'
+  require 'echoe'
 
-desc "Start Cassandra"
-task :cassandra => [:checkout, :patch, :build] do
-  env = "CASSANDRA_INCLUDE=#{Dir.pwd}/conf/cassandra.in.sh" unless ENV["CASSANDRA_INCLUDE"]
-  exec("env #{env} cassandra/bin/cassandra -f")
+  Echoe.new("cassandra") do |p|
+    p.author = "Evan Weaver"
+    p.project = "fauna"
+    p.summary = "A Ruby client for the Cassandra distributed database."
+    p.rubygems_version = ">= 0.8"
+    p.dependencies = ['json', 'thrift']
+    p.ignore_pattern = /^(data|vendor\/cassandra|cassandra|vendor\/thrift)/
+    p.rdoc_pattern = /^(lib|bin|tasks|ext)|^README|^CHANGELOG|^TODO|^LICENSE|^COPYING$/
+    p.url = "http://blog.evanweaver.com/files/doc/fauna/cassandra/"
+    p.docs_host = "blog.evanweaver.com:~/www/bax/public/files/doc/"
+  end
 end
 
 REVISION = "15354b4906fd654d58fe50fd01ebf95b69434ba9"
+
 PATCHES = [
   "http://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/attachment/12416014/0001-CASSANDRA-356-rename-clean-up-collectColumns-methods.txt",
   "http://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/attachment/12416073/0002-v3.patch",
   "http://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/attachment/12416074/357-v2.patch",
   "http://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/attachment/12416086/357-3.patch"]
-  
+
+CASSANDRA_HOME = "#{ENV['HOME']}/cassandra/r#{REVISION[0, 8]}"
+
+CASSANDRA_TEST = "#{ENV['HOME']}/cassandra/test"
+
+desc "Start Cassandra"
+task :cassandra => [:checkout, :patch, :build] do
+  # Construct environment
+  env = ""
+  if !ENV["CASSANDRA_INCLUDE"]
+    env << "CASSANDRA_INCLUDE=#{Dir.pwd}/conf/cassandra.in.sh "
+    env << "CASSANDRA_HOME=#{CASSANDRA_HOME} "
+    env << "CASSANDRA_CONF=#{File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__))}/conf" 
+  end  
+  # Create data dir
+  Dir.mkdir(CASSANDRA_TEST) if !File.exist?(CASSANDRA_TEST)
+  # Start server
+  Dir.chdir(CASSANDRA_TEST) do
+    exec("env #{env} #{CASSANDRA_HOME}/bin/cassandra -f")
+  end
+end
+
+desc "Checkout Cassandra from git"
 task :checkout do
   # Like a git submodule, but all in one obvious place
-  unless File.exist?("cassandra")
-    system("git clone git://git.apache.org/cassandra.git") 
+  unless File.exist?(CASSANDRA_HOME)
+    system("git clone git://git.apache.org/cassandra.git #{CASSANDRA_HOME}")
     ENV["RESET"] = "true"
   end
 end
 
+desc "Apply patches to Cassandra checkout"
 task :patch do
   if ENV["RESET"]
-    Dir.chdir("cassandra") do
+    system("rm -rf #{CASSANDRA_TEST}/data")
+    Dir.chdir(CASSANDRA_HOME) do
       system("ant clean && git fetch && git reset #{REVISION} --hard")
       # Delete untracked files, so that the patchs can apply again
       Array(`git status`[/Untracked files:(.*)$/m, 1].to_s.split("\n")[3..-1]).each do |file|
         File.unlink(file.sub(/^.\s+/, "")) rescue nil
       end
       # Patch, with a handy commit for each one
-      PATCHES.each do |url| 
+      PATCHES.each do |url|
         raise "#{url} failed" unless system("curl #{url} | patch -p1")
         system("git commit -a -m 'Applied patch: #{url.inspect}'")
       end
@@ -50,12 +73,21 @@ task :patch do
   end
 end
 
+desc "Rebuild Cassandra"
 task :build do
-  Dir.chdir("cassandra") { system("ant") } unless File.exist?("cassandra/build")
+  Dir.chdir(CASSANDRA_HOME) { system("ant") } unless File.exist?("#{CASSANDRA_HOME}/build")
 end
 
+desc "Clean Cassandra build"
 task :clean do
-  Dir.chdir("cassandra") { system("ant clean") }
+  Dir.chdir(CASSANDRA_HOME) { system("ant clean") } if File.exist?(CASSANDRA_HOME)
+end
+
+namespace :data do
+  desc "Reset test data"
+  task :reset do
+    system("rm -rf #{CASSANDRA_TEST}/data")
+  end
 end
 
 desc "Regenerate thrift bindings for Cassandra"
@@ -63,6 +95,6 @@ task :thrift do
   system(
     "cd vendor &&
     rm -rf gen-rb &&
-    thrift -gen rb ../cassandra/interface/cassandra.thrift")
+    thrift -gen rb #{CASSANDRA_HOME}/interface/cassandra.thrift")
 end
 
diff --git a/bin/cassandra_helper b/bin/cassandra_helper
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..13133bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/cassandra_helper
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+require 'rubygems'
+require 'rake'
+require 'cassandra'
+
+gem_path = $LOAD_PATH.last.sub(/lib$/, "")
+
+Dir.chdir(gem_path) do
+  if !ENV["CASSANDRA_INCLUDE"]
+    puts "Set the CASSANDRA_INCLUDE environment variable to use a non-default cassandra.in.sh and friends."
+  end
+
+  ARGV << "-T" if ARGV.empty?
+  exec("env FROM_BIN_CASSANDRA_HELPER=1 rake #{ARGV.join(' ')}")
+end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/conf/cassandra.in.sh b/conf/cassandra.in.sh
index d8506bc..4682b41 100644
--- a/conf/cassandra.in.sh
+++ b/conf/cassandra.in.sh
@@ -14,27 +14,20 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-
-cassandra_home=`pwd`/cassandra
-
 # The directory where Cassandra's configs live (required)
-CASSANDRA_CONF=`pwd`/conf
+CASSANDRA_CONF=$CASSANDRA_CONF
 
 # This can be the path to a jar file, or a directory containing the 
-# compiled classes. NOTE: This isn't needed by the startup script,
-# it's just used here in constructing the classpath.
-cassandra_bin=$cassandra_home/build/classes
-#cassandra_bin=$cassandra_home/build/cassandra.jar
+# compiled classes.
+cassandra_bin=$CASSANDRA_HOME/build/classes
 
 # The java classpath (required)
 CLASSPATH=$CASSANDRA_CONF:$cassandra_bin
 
-for jar in $cassandra_home/lib/*.jar; do
+for jar in $CASSANDRA_HOME/lib/*.jar; do
     CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:$jar
 done
 
-echo $cassandra_home
-
 # Arguments to pass to the JVM
 JVM_OPTS=" \
         -ea \