add release steps and email template
Merge pull request #335 from satta/release_1.5.3

add release steps and email template
version bump
update docs
add distribution build script (for Ubuntu 64-bit)
initialize variables

obscure warnings from darwin cross-compiler
Merge pull request #336 from gordon/release

add distribution build script (for Ubuntu 64-bit)
typo
Merge pull request #337 from satta/master

typo - will not wait for travis on this one.