public String getClipboardContents()
  {
    String result = "" ;
    Clipboard clipboard = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard() ;
    //odd: the Object param of getContents is not currently used
    Transferable contents = clipboard.getContents( null ) ;
    boolean hasTransferableText = ( contents != null ) &&
        contents.isDataFlavorSupported( DataFlavor.stringFlavor ) ;
    if ( hasTransferableText )
    {
      try
      {
        result = ( String ) contents.getTransferData( DataFlavor.stringFlavor ) ;
      }
      catch ( UnsupportedFlavorException ex )
      {
        //highly unlikely since we are using a standard DataFlavor
        System.out.println( ex ) ;
      }
      catch ( IOException ex )
      {
        System.out.println( ex ) ;
      }
    }
    return result ;
  }