I decided to use http-access2 - it was fairly easy to set up and use.
Also i didn't find any possibility to force open-uri not to check 
self-signed SSL certificates, which appeared to be made in one string 
when using http-access2:
---
 clnt = HTTPAccess2::Client.new
 clnt.ssl_config.verify_mode = nil
---

Ross Bamford wrote:

>On Thu, 2006-03-16 at 05:33 +0900, eastcoastcoder / gmail.com wrote:
>  
>
>>+1 that Ruby is in major need of a cURL binding.
>>
>>Too bad I don't know how to do it... would love to see it done,
>>though....
>>    
>>
>
>I've found updating old extension code to Ruby 1.8 to be a great way to
>learn :) 
>
>I played a bit more with rbCurl and found it to be fairly stable and
>functional, so I posted a copy with my patch applied at:
>
>	http://roscopeco.co.uk/code/rbCurl-0.0.2-03.06.tar.gz
>
>(I tried contacting the original author, but received no response -
>understandably I guess since it looks like it's been a few years...)
>
>Also, OP: You may find that you can get what you need fairly easily with
>net/http or open_uri, both in the standard library...
>
>  
>

Regarding rbCurl: my curl version is 7.14.0 and the said extension 
doesn't compile.

-- 
Best,
  Yaroslav Tarasenko aka Taras Tswiah
  UNIX systems administrator