diff --git a/web/Gemfile b/web/Gemfile
index e157c4c12..2c5857d01 100644
--- a/web/Gemfile
+++ b/web/Gemfile
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ gem 'slim'
 gem 'htmlentities'
 gem 'sanitize'
 gem 'recurly'
-gem 'guard', '2.7.3'
+#gem 'guard', '2.7.3'
 gem 'influxdb', '0.1.8'
 gem 'influxdb-rails', '0.1.10'
 gem 'sitemap_generator'
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ end
 group :development, :test do
   gem 'rspec-rails', '2.14.2'
   gem "activerecord-import", "~> 0.4.1"
-  gem 'guard-rspec', '0.5.5'
+#  gem 'guard-rspec', '0.5.5'
 #  gem 'jasmine', '1.3.1' 
   gem 'pry'
   gem 'execjs', '1.4.0'
@@ -136,8 +136,8 @@ group :test, :cucumber do
 #end
   gem 'capybara-screenshot', '0.3.22' # 1.0.0 broke compat with rspec.  maybe we need newer rspec
   gem 'selenium-webdriver'
-  gem 'cucumber-rails', :require => false #, '1.3.0', :require => false
-  gem 'guard-spork', '0.3.2'  
+#  gem 'cucumber-rails', :require => false #, '1.3.0', :require => false
+#  gem 'guard-spork', '0.3.2'  
   gem 'spork', '0.9.0'
   gem 'launchy', '2.1.1'
   gem 'rack-test'
diff --git a/web/spec/features/getting_started_dialog_spec.rb b/web/spec/features/getting_started_dialog_spec.rb
index d7186cfe3..c88034255 100644
--- a/web/spec/features/getting_started_dialog_spec.rb
+++ b/web/spec/features/getting_started_dialog_spec.rb
@@ -83,11 +83,7 @@ describe "Home Screen", :js => true, :type => :feature, :capybara_feature => tru
       describe "launches youtube tutorial site" do
 
         it {
-          find("#getting-started-dialog a[purpose='youtube-tutorials']").trigger(:click)
-          page.driver.window_handles.last
-          page.within_window page.driver.window_handles.last do
-            should have_title('JamKazam - YouTube')
-          end
+          find("#getting-started-dialog a[purpose='youtube-tutorials']")['href'].should eq('https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC38nc9MMZgExJAd7ca3rkUA')
         }
       end
 
diff --git a/web/spec/spec_helper.rb b/web/spec/spec_helper.rb
index c031e9f43..73778e289 100644
--- a/web/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/web/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -50,6 +50,10 @@ include JamRuby
 ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :test
 RecordedTrack.observers.disable :all # only a few tests want this observer active
 
+# disable test-unit autorun behavior: https://github.com/grosser/parallel_tests/issues/189
+require "test/unit"
+Test::Unit::AutoRunner.need_auto_run = false
+
 # a way to kill tests if they aren't running. capybara is hanging intermittently, I think
 tests_started = false