diff --git a/htroot/SettingsAck_p.java b/htroot/SettingsAck_p.java
index 822684aa5..805a9e2de 100644
--- a/htroot/SettingsAck_p.java
+++ b/htroot/SettingsAck_p.java
@@ -424,8 +424,7 @@ public class SettingsAck_p {
                     for (int i=0; i<configOptions.length; i++) {
                         final String newSettings = post.get(configOptions[i],"");
                         final String oldSettings = env.getConfig(configOptions[i],"");
-                        // FIXME should this be: nC = nC && newSettings.equals()
-                        //         or (current): nC = nC & newSettings.equals()
+                        // bitwise AND with boolean is same as logic AND
                         nothingChanged &= newSettings.equals(oldSettings); 
                         if (!nothingChanged) {
                             env.setConfig(configOptions[i],newSettings);
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/crawler/CrawlQueues.java b/source/de/anomic/crawler/CrawlQueues.java
index e574851bb..73e4a259f 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/crawler/CrawlQueues.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/crawler/CrawlQueues.java
@@ -322,7 +322,7 @@ public class CrawlQueues {
         if (seed == null) return false;
         
         // we know a peer which should provide remote crawl entries. load them now.
-        final RSSFeed feed = (seed == null) ? null : yacyClient.queryRemoteCrawlURLs(sb.webIndex.seedDB, seed, 20);
+        final RSSFeed feed = yacyClient.queryRemoteCrawlURLs(sb.webIndex.seedDB, seed, 20);
         if (feed == null) return true;
         // parse the rss
         yacyURL url, referrer;
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/data/userDB.java b/source/de/anomic/data/userDB.java
index 8724aab75..6cc3a38e7 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/data/userDB.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/data/userDB.java
@@ -150,16 +150,17 @@ public final class userDB {
         return entry;
     }
     /**
-     * determinate, if a user has Adminrights from a authorisation http-headerfield
-     * it tests both userDB and oldstyle adminpw.
-     * @param auth the http-headerline for authorisation
+     * determinate, if a user has Adminrights from a authorisation http-headerfield it tests both userDB and oldstyle adminpw.
+     * 
+     * @param auth
+     *            the http-headerline for authorisation
      */
-    public boolean hasAdminRight(final String auth, final String ip, final String cookies){
-        final Entry entry=getUser(auth, ip, cookies);
-        if(entry != null)
-            return entry.hasAdminRight();
-        else if(entry != null && cookieAdminAuth(cookies))
+    public boolean hasAdminRight(final String auth, final String ip, final String cookies) {
+        final Entry entry = getUser(auth, ip, cookies);
+        if (entry != null)
             return entry.hasAdminRight();
+        // else if(entry != null && cookieAdminAuth(cookies))
+        //     return entry.hasAdminRight();
         else
             return false;
     }
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/kelondro/kelondroBLOBArray.java b/source/de/anomic/kelondro/kelondroBLOBArray.java
index 0bd2bb7d7..2a7bd8dee 100755
--- a/source/de/anomic/kelondro/kelondroBLOBArray.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/kelondro/kelondroBLOBArray.java
@@ -73,9 +73,9 @@ public class kelondroBLOBArray implements kelondroBLOB {
 
         // check existence of the heap directory
         if (heapLocation.exists()) {
-            if (!heapLocation.isDirectory()) throw new IOException("the BLOBArray directory " + heapLocation.toString() + " does not exist (is blocked by a file with same name");
+            if (!heapLocation.isDirectory()) throw new IOException("the BLOBArray directory " + heapLocation.toString() + " does not exist (is blocked by a file with same name)");
         } else {
-            heapLocation.mkdirs();
+            if(!heapLocation.mkdirs()) throw new IOException("the BLOBArray directory " + heapLocation.toString() + " does not exist (can not be created)");
         }
 
         // register all blob files inside this directory
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ public class kelondroBLOBArray implements kelondroBLOB {
                } catch (ParseException e) {continue;}
                f = new File(heapLocation, files[i]);
                oneBlob = new kelondroBLOBHeap(f, keylength, ordering);
-               sortedItems.put(new Long(d.getTime()), new blobItem(d, f, oneBlob));
+               sortedItems.put(Long.valueOf(d.getTime()), new blobItem(d, f, oneBlob));
             }
         }
         
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/kelondro/kelondroRowCollection.java b/source/de/anomic/kelondro/kelondroRowCollection.java
index 4c93f696a..4247f3a21 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/kelondro/kelondroRowCollection.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/kelondro/kelondroRowCollection.java
@@ -263,10 +263,10 @@ public class kelondroRowCollection {
         return b;
     }
     
-    public final kelondroRow.Entry get(final int index, final boolean clone) {
+    public synchronized final kelondroRow.Entry get(final int index, final boolean clone) {
         assert (index >= 0) : "get: access with index " + index + " is below zero";
         assert (index < chunkcount) : "get: access with index " + index + " is above chunkcount " + chunkcount + "; sortBound = " + sortBound;
-        assert (index * rowdef.objectsize < chunkcache.length);
+        assert (chunkcache != null && index * rowdef.objectsize < chunkcache.length);
         assert sortBound <= chunkcount : "sortBound = " + sortBound + ", chunkcount = " + chunkcount;
         if ((chunkcache == null) || (rowdef == null)) return null; // case may appear during shutdown
         kelondroRow.Entry entry;
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaSearchRankingProcess.java b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaSearchRankingProcess.java
index 4fcc1825c..9e4304d88 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaSearchRankingProcess.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaSearchRankingProcess.java
@@ -115,14 +115,12 @@ public final class plasmaSearchRankingProcess {
         // join and exclude the local result
         timer = System.currentTimeMillis();
         final indexContainer index =
-            (this.localSearchContainerMaps == null) ?
-              plasmaWordIndex.emptyContainer(null, 0) :
-                  indexContainer.joinExcludeContainers(
-                      this.localSearchContainerMaps[0].values(),
-                      this.localSearchContainerMaps[1].values(),
-                      query.maxDistance);
+            indexContainer.joinExcludeContainers(
+                this.localSearchContainerMaps[0].values(),
+                this.localSearchContainerMaps[1].values(),
+                query.maxDistance);
         serverProfiling.update("SEARCH", new plasmaProfiling.searchEvent(query.id(true), plasmaSearchEvent.JOIN, index.size(), System.currentTimeMillis() - timer));
-        if ((index == null) || (index.size() == 0)) {
+        if (index.size() == 0) {
             return;
         }
         
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaWordIndex.java b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaWordIndex.java
index 3f2885338..c6d2d1e76 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaWordIndex.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaWordIndex.java
@@ -424,7 +424,7 @@ public final class plasmaWordIndex implements indexRI {
             // flush elements that are too big. This flushing depends on the fact that the flush rule
             // selects the biggest elements first for flushing. If it does not for any reason, the following
             // loop would not terminate.
-            serverProfiling.update("wordcache", new Long(cs));
+            serverProfiling.update("wordcache", Long.valueOf(cs));
             // To ensure termination an additional counter is used
             int l = 0;
             while ((l++ < 100) && (theCache.maxURLinCache() > wCacheMaxChunk)) {
@@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ public final class plasmaWordIndex implements indexRI {
                     (serverMemory.available() < collections.minMem())) {
                 flushCache(theCache, Math.min(theCache.size() - theCache.getMaxWordCount() + 1, theCache.size()));
             }
-            if (cacheSize() != cs) serverProfiling.update("wordcache", new Long(cacheSize()));
+            if (cacheSize() != cs) serverProfiling.update("wordcache", Long.valueOf(cacheSize()));
         }
     }