function serialize(_obj) {
        // Let Gecko browsers do this the easy way
        if (typeof _obj.toSource !== 'undefined' && typeof _obj.callee === 'undefined') {
            return _obj.toSource();
        }

        // Other browsers must do it the hard way
        switch (typeof _obj) {
            // numbers, booleans, and functions are trivial: 
            // just return the object itself since its default .toString() 
            // gives us exactly what we want 
            case 'number':
            case 'boolean':
            case 'function':
                return _obj;
                break;

            // for JSON format, strings need to be wrapped in quotes 
            case 'string':
                return '\'' + _obj + '\'';
                break;

            case 'object':
                var str;
                if (((typeof _obj.constructor) === Array )|| ((typeof _obj.callee) !== 'undefined')) {
                    str = '[';
                    var i, len = _obj.length;
                    for (i =  0 ; i < len -  1 ; i++) { str += serialize(_obj[i]) + ','; }
                    str += serialize(_obj[i]) + ']';
                }
                else {
                    str = '{';
                    var key;
                    for (key in _obj) { str += key + ':' + serialize(_obj[key]) + ','; }
                    str = str.replace(/\,$/, '') + '}';
                }
                return str;
                break;

            default:
                return 'UNKNOWN';
                break;
        }
    }