open-uri can read slashdot rss, but not digg rss ?

[aktxyz]

Here's an irb session, this used to work, maybe something new about
digg's rss feed ?

irb(main):001:0> require 'open-uri'
=> true
irb(main):002:0> open('http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/
slashdot').readlines.length
=> 263
irb(main):003:0> open('http://www.digg.com/rss/
containertechnology.xml').readlines.length
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:54:in `rbuf_fill': execution expired
(Timeout::Error)
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:56:in `timeout'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:76:in `timeout'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:132:in `rbuf_fill'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:116:in `readuntil'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:126:in `readline'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1988:in `read_status_line'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1977:in `read_new'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1046:in `request'
... 8 levels...
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:86:in `open'
from (irb):3:in `irb_binding'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/workspace.rb:52:in `irb_binding'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/workspace.rb:52


happens every time !

 

[aktxyz]

Here's an irb session, this used to work, maybe something new about
digg's rss feed ?

irb(main):001:0> require 'open-uri'
=> true
irb(main):002:0> open('http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/
slashdot').readlines.length
=> 263
irb(main):003:0> open('http://www.digg.com/rss/
containertechnology.xml').readlines.length
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:54:in `rbuf_fill': execution expired
(Timeout::Error)
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:56:in `timeout'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:76:in `timeout'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:132:in `rbuf_fill'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:116:in `readuntil'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:126:in `readline'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1988:in `read_status_line'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1977:in `read_new'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1046:in `request'
... 8 levels...
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:86:in `open'
from (irb):3:in `irb_binding'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/workspace.rb:52:in `irb_binding'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/irb/workspace.rb:52

happens every time !

Digg wants a specific user-agent, like the one my FF uses. Why in the
world would they do that ? What/who are they hoping to prevent. Do
they really only want browsers connecting to there feeds ?

 

[John Joyce]

They may just be keeping track of what user-agents are being used.
Though browser sniffing is almost pointless.
Should be easy enough to give it whatever string you like. "user-
agent" is nothing but a string anyway, almost meaningless, because it
isn't guaranteed to be true or mean anything valid or verifiable.
(like microsoft's early corruption of it, to circumvent browser
sniffing and blocking by starting it's MSIE user-agent string with
Mozilla 4.x (compatible... ))