API call to predict gender from a personal name (Gendre API sample)

gistfile1.txt

import java.net.URLEncoder;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;

	/**
	 * Predict Gender from a Personal name
	 * @param firstName The given name 
	 * @param lastName The family name
	 * @return Double in range -1 (male) .. +1 (female)
	 */
	public Double genderize(String firstName, String lastName) {
		try {
			DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
			String url = "http://api.onomatic.com/onomastics/api/gendre/"
					+ URLEncoder.encode(firstName, "UTF-8") + "/"
					+ URLEncoder.encode(lastName, "UTF-8");
			HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(url);
			HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
			BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
					response.getEntity().getContent()));
			String line = in.readLine();
			if (line != null && !line.trim().equals("")) {
				result = Double.parseDouble(line);
			}
			in.close();
			return result;
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
			return null;
		}
	}