diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index 9dcc533c01..07e7d79eae 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
 TODO list and plans
 ===================
 
-   * make remote user settable versus assuming remote login is named root
    * modules for users, groups, and files, using puppet style ensure mechanics
-   * ansible-inventory -- gathering fact/hw info, storing in git, adding RSS
-   * ansible-slurp ------ recursively rsync file trees for each host
+   * ansible-inventory - gathering fact/hw info, storing in git, adding RSS
+   * ansible-slurp - recursively rsync file trees for each host
    * very simple option constructing/parsing for modules
    * Dead-simple declarative configuration management engine using
      a runbook style recipe file, written in JSON or YAML
diff --git a/bin/ansible b/bin/ansible
index 6425dcd714..bb8cce7295 100755
--- a/bin/ansible
+++ b/bin/ansible
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ DEFAULT_MODULE_NAME    = 'ping'
 DEFAULT_PATTERN        = '*'
 DEFAULT_FORKS          = 3
 DEFAULT_MODULE_ARGS    = ''
+DEFAULT_REMOTE_USER    = 'root'
 
 class Cli(object):
 
@@ -44,7 +45,7 @@ class Cli(object):
             help="path to hosts list", default=DEFAULT_HOST_LIST)
         parser.add_option("-L", "--library", dest="module_path",
             help="path to module library", default=DEFAULT_MODULE_PATH)
-        parser.add_option("-F", "--forks", dest="forks",
+        parser.add_option("-f", "--forks", dest="forks",
             help="level of parallelism", default=DEFAULT_FORKS)
         parser.add_option("-n", "--name", dest="module_name",
             help="module name to execute", default=DEFAULT_MODULE_NAME)
@@ -52,6 +53,8 @@ class Cli(object):
             help="module arguments", default=DEFAULT_MODULE_ARGS)
         parser.add_option("-p", "--pattern", dest="pattern",
             help="hostname pattern", default=DEFAULT_PATTERN)
+        parser.add_option("-u", "--remote-user", dest="remote_user",
+            help="remote username", default=DEFAULT_REMOTE_USER)
 
         options, args = parser.parse_args()
 
@@ -62,6 +65,7 @@ class Cli(object):
             module_name=options.module_name,
             module_path=options.module_path,
             module_args=options.module_args.split(' '),
+            remote_user=options.remote_user,
             host_list=options.host_list,
             forks=options.forks,
             pattern=options.pattern,
diff --git a/lib/ansible/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/__init__.py
index 4af0ba405a..77012dda9a 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/__init__.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ DEFAULT_PATTERN        = '*'
 DEFAULT_FORKS          = 3
 DEFAULT_MODULE_ARGS    = ''
 DEFAULT_TIMEOUT        = 60
+DEFAULT_REMOTE_USER    = 'root'
 
 class Pooler(object):
 
@@ -66,6 +67,7 @@ class Runner(object):
        forks=DEFAULT_FORKS, 
        timeout=DEFAULT_TIMEOUT, 
        pattern=DEFAULT_PATTERN,
+       remote_user=DEFAULT_REMOTE_USER,
        verbose=False):
       
 
@@ -81,6 +83,7 @@ class Runner(object):
        self.module_args = module_args
        self.timeout     = timeout
        self.verbose     = verbose
+       self.remote_user = remote_user
 
    def _parse_hosts(self, host_list):
         ''' parse the host inventory file if not sent as an array '''
@@ -103,23 +106,19 @@ class Runner(object):
        ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
        ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
        try:
-          ssh.connect(host, username='root',
+          ssh.connect(host, username=self.remote_user,
               allow_agent=True, look_for_keys=True)
-          return ssh
+          return [ True, ssh ]
        except:
-          # TODO -- just convert traceback to string
-          # and return a seperate hash of failed hosts
-          if self.verbose:
-             traceback.print_exc()
-          return None
+          return [ False, traceback.format_exc() ]
 
    def _executor(self, host):
        ''' callback executed in parallel for each host '''
        # TODO: try/catch returning none
 
-       conn = self._connect(host)
-       if not conn:
-           return [ host, None ]
+       ok, conn = self._connect(host)
+       if not ok:
+           return [ host, False, conn ]
 
        if self.module_name != "copy":
            # transfer a module, set it executable, and run it
@@ -127,15 +126,14 @@ class Runner(object):
            self._exec_command(conn, "chmod +x %s" % outpath)
            cmd = self._command(outpath)
            result = self._exec_command(conn, cmd)
-           result = json.loads(result)
+           return [ host, True, json.loads(result) ]
        else:
            # SFTP file copy module is not really a module
            ftp = conn.open_sftp()
            ftp.put(self.module_args[0], self.module_args[1])
            ftp.close()
-           return [ host, 1 ]
+           return [ host, True, 1 ]
            
-       return [ host, result ]
 
    def _command(self, outpath):
        ''' form up a command string '''
@@ -168,8 +166,17 @@ class Runner(object):
        def executor(x):
            return self._executor(x)
        results = Pooler.parmap(executor, hosts)
-       by_host = dict(results)
-       return by_host
+       results2 = {
+          "successful" : {},
+          "failed"     : {}
+       }
+       for x in results:
+           (host, is_ok, result) = x
+           if not is_ok:
+               results2["failed"][host] = result
+           else:
+               results2["successful"][host] = result
+       return results2
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':