Java: Handling Files (Reading, Writing, Fetching Webpage)

    /**
     * appends the given string to a log file and adds a newline character.
     *
     * @param s string to log
     * @param fileName name of the log file (or path, base path: user home)
     * @param whether or not to prepend the current date and time before s
     */
    public void log(String s, String fileName, boolean prepentDate) {
        String path = System.getProperty("user.home")
                + System.getProperty("file.separator");
        String preString = "";
        if (prepentDate) {
            preString = getDate("yyyy.MM.dd-HH:mm:ss-z") + ": ";
        }

        FileWriter fw = null;
        try {
            fw = new FileWriter(path + fileName, true);
            fw.write(preString + s + "\n");
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            System.out.println(this.getClass().getName()
                    + ".log(): ERROR writing to log:"
                    + path + fileName + ": " + ex);
        } finally {
            if (fw != null) {
                try {
                    fw.close();
                } catch (IOException ex) {
                    System.out.println(this.getClass().getName()
                    + ".log(): ERROR closing stream:"
                    + path + fileName + ": " + ex);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * returns the current date in desired format.
     *
     * example for format: "yyyy.MM.dd-HH:mm:ss-z" or "yyyy.mm.dd".
     * @param format
     * @return
     */
    public String getDate(String format) {
        DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
        return dateFormat.format(new Date());
    }

    OutputStreamWriter osw = new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream(fileName));
    try {
      osw.write(message);
    }
    finally {
      osw.close();
    }

    public String read(String fileName) throws IOException {
        BufferedReader br = null;
        String content = "";
        try {
            br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));
            String read;
            while ((read = br.readLine()) != null) {
                content += read + '\n';
            }
        } finally {
            if (br != null) {
                br.close();
            }
        }
        return content;
    }

    /**
     * connects to and retrieves the page.
     * @return html page in string form
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public String getHTML(String url) throws MalformedURLException, IOException {
        String html = "";
        URL myUrl = new URL(url);

        HttpURLConnection httpcon = (HttpURLConnection) myUrl.openConnection();
        httpcon.addRequestProperty("User-Agent", "Mozilla/4.76"); // ua needed by some pages, eg google search
        BufferedReader in = null;
        try {
            String line;
            in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(httpcon.getInputStream()));
            while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
                html = html + line + "\n";
            }
        } finally {
            if (in != null) {
                in.close();
            }
        }
        return html;
    }