url = 'http://mybucket.s3.amazonaws.com/simdata.zip';
$.ajax({
  url: url,
  dataType: "json",
  contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
  success: function(response) {
    console.log("received");
  },
  failure: function(response) {
    // TODO: decent error message
    alert('Unable to load');
  }
});