If you have any problems building gems with native code on OS X, check to see if it is trying to build PPC binaries. Things might break if your gem is relying on a library built with MacPorts… that was only built for Intel.
If this is this case, then this handy prefix will allow your gem to build properly.
sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install [gem to install]
Reading your posts, I wish I was more ‘tec-key’, but I am happy I know you!