@authors
srojas
nhhughes

-added improvements to the request mechanism
-change local cache to a update dependent model
changed some stuff around to get ready for devel merge

author: nhhughes
merged devel back in for bug fixes

author: nhhughes
fixed unit tests and got code mostly working with devel

author: nhhughes
Merge pull request #58 from SixAppeal/long-polling

Long polling