Sorry if this doesn't do it for you, but writing this made my day. 

/**

 * @author dwyer

 * Who says xml-rpc can't pass java objects?  

 * just serialize, stream to byte[] rinse, and repeat.

 */

public class Utils {



    public static byte[] byteArrayFromObj(java.io.Serializable obj){

        ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

        ObjectOutputStream oos = null;

        try{

            oos = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);

            oos.writeObject(obj);

        }catch(IOException e){

            System.out.println();

            return null;

        }               

        return bos.toByteArray();

    }    



    public static Object objFromByteArray(byte[] ba){

        ByteArrayInputStream bis = null;

        ObjectInputStream ois = null;

        Object rtn = null;

        try{

            bis = new ByteArrayInputStream(ba);

            ois = new ObjectInputStream(bis);

            rtn = ois.readObject();

        }catch(IOException e){

            System.out.println("io except");

            return null;

        }catch(ClassNotFoundException e){

            System.out.println("c not found");

            return null;        

        }

        return rtn;

    }    

}


These Tiff commentaries are actually pretty fun to read. Go 'team that must not be named'!