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# Spinning Guyro: Google & I
# [Spinning Guyro][1]
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## December 08, 2008
### Google & I
I was brushing off my Java skills the other day. It's been a little while and I ran into a task I could not, from memory, recall how to write. So I turned to Google and quickly came up with [this post][19] from 1996(!) on the subject:
` From: Lawrence Page
I have a web robot which is a Java app. I need to be able to set the User-Agent field in the HTTP header in order to be a good net citizen (so people know who is accessing their server). Anyone have any ideas?
Right now, Java sends a request that includes something like:
User-Agent: Java/1.0beta2
I'd rather not rewrite all the HTTP stuff myself. I tried just searching in the JDK for the Java/1.0beta2 figuring I could just change the string, but I couldn't find it. Perhaps it is stored as a unicode string?
An easy method of setting the User-Agent field should probably be added to Java, so people can properly identify their programs.
Thanks, Larry Page `
Hmm, I wonder what kind of "web robot" this [Larry Page][20] was working on and hope [his project][21] was successful!
Does it bode well for me that I ran into the same question?
Posted at 12:17 AM | [Permalink][22]
### Comments
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![John Rockefeller][25]
That's awesome. I always love these things, where it's like "before they were stars".
All Google crawlers are python based. Especially the crawlers.
Posted by: [Scott][42] | [December 20, 2008 at 07:36 AM][43]
![EW][44]
I questioning the legitimacy of the post since both the question and response are dated exactly 3am.
Posted by: EW | [January 01, 2009 at 10:57 PM][45]
![Guy Rosen][46]
@BW - interesting find. Poking around a bit I can see that most if not all all old Usenet posts from that period have a date header and not a time (as can be seen in the raw message). Apparently the standards of 1996 did not demand a time field.
So, Google Groups simply set 0:00 (PST) as the time when importing the old Usenet archives. You see 3am because you're on EST.
I guess Larry Page switched to Python after getting frustrated with Java.
Posted by: Nico | [October 06, 2009 at 07:15 AM][50]
![Woody Smith][25]
An easy method of setting the User-Agent field should probably be added to Java, so people can properly identify their programs. I am also interested on the web robot that Larry Bode had set-up. Hope he was able to complete it and make it available for critic. Nice work.