Ping technorati in asp.net

Dim req As WebRequest
Dim resp As WebResponse
Dim reader As StreamReader

req = HttpWebRequest.Create("http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping")


Dim b() As Byte = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("weblogUpdates.pingHuberblog http://www.anishshaikh.com")
req.Method = "POST"
'req.Headers("User-Agent") = "IE"
req.ContentType = "text/xml"
req.ContentLength = b.Length
Dim s As System.IO.Stream = req.GetRequestStream()
s.Write(b, 0, b.Length)
s.Close()

resp = req.GetResponse()

-- Anish