public static String loadFileAsString(String filename) throws java.io.IOException {
        final int BUFLEN=1024;
        BufferedInputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(filename), BUFLEN);
        try {
            ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream(BUFLEN);
            byte[] bytes = new byte[BUFLEN];
            boolean isUTF8=false;
            int read,count=0;           
            while((read=is.read(bytes)) != -1) {
                if (count==0 && bytes[0]==(byte)0xEF && bytes[1]==(byte)0xBB && bytes[2]==(byte)0xBF ) {
                    isUTF8=true;
                    baos.write(bytes, 3, read-3); // drop UTF8 bom marker
                } else {
                    baos.write(bytes, 0, read);
                }
                count+=read;
            }
            return isUTF8 ? new String(baos.toByteArray(), "UTF-8") : new String(baos.toByteArray());
        } finally {
            try{ is.close(); } catch(Exception ex){} 
        }
    }