Private Function SimpleGetRequest(ByVal url As String) As String
        Dim req As WebRequest = WebRequest.Create(url)
        req.Method = "GET"
        Dim resp As WebResponse = req.GetResponse()
        Dim sr As New StreamReader(resp.GetResponseStream())
        Dim res As String = sr.ReadToEnd()
        sr.Close()
        resp.Close()
        Return res
    End Function