code: def pack_bits( longbits ):
      
      byte = longbits & (0x0101010101010101)
      byte = (byte | (byte>>7)) & (0x0003000300030003)
      byte = (byte | (byte>>14)) & (0x0000000f0000000f)
      byte = (byte | (byte>>28)) & (0x00000000000000ff)
      return byte
docs: Crunch a 64-bit int (8 bool bytes) into a bitfield.