# File rice/icemachine.rb, line 57
    def ping(url)
	payload = Rice::PingPayload.new(@domain, @party)
	reply = sendPayload(payload, url)
	begin
	    code, errMsg = retrieveErrorCodeFrom(reply, payload.requestId)
	    return (code == 200) ? "Pong!" : errMsg
	rescue
	    # Ruby compile-time or runtime errors will be captured here.
	    # eRuby returns the error messages as an HTML document.
	    str = "#{$!}: #{reply}"
	    Log::log(Log::ERROR, 'rice', str)
	    return str
	end
    end