Merge pull request #33 from pferraro/master

Misc tweaks.
Merge pull request #34 from pferraro/master

Upgrade commons-codec to 1.9
Merge pull request #35 from pferraro/master

Code clean up.
Merge pull request #36 from pferraro/master

Misc tweaks
Upgrade git dependency of release plugin.
Fix git dependency
[maven-release-plugin] prepare release 3.0.0
[maven-release-plugin] prepare for next development iteration
Next is 3.1.0-alpha-1
Bump runtime requirement to Java 1.7.
Fix incomplete sentence in durability description.