[MERGE] selftest fails if the committer name contains non-ASCII characters

[John Arbash Meinel]

John Arbash Meinel has voted resubmit.
Status is now: Resubmit
Comment:
Other than calling it "make_utf8_encoded_stringio()" or 
"make_utf8_stringio()", because we are forcing a specific encoding.

I think the more important thing as Martin mentioned, is that we 
actually want to *force* the email to be a non-ascii email, so that the 
code is actually being tested for everyone. (Rather than only when 
Lukáš runs the tests).

By the way, Lukáš, I'm curious how the pronunciation of Lukáš is 
different from Lukas or Lucas. (and what language is it)

For details, see: 
http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/request/%3C1186500392.6223.29.camel%40nemo%3E