def utf16_to_utf8(obj)
      str = obj[2, obj.size]
      str = str.unpack("n*").pack("U*")
      str.force_encoding("utf-8")
      str
    end
def utf16_to_utf8(obj)
      str = obj[2, obj.size]
      str = str.unpack("n*").pack("U*")
      str.force_encoding("utf-8")
      str
    end
one day we'll all run on a 1.9 compatible VM and I can just do this with
 String#encode