This problem occurs with OpenURI and Ruby 1.8:
```ruby
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:586:in connect': SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: ce
rtificate verify failed (OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError)
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:586:in connect'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:553:in do_start'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:542:in start'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:242:in open_http'
```
With Ruby 1.9 you have an option to fix it like this:
```ruby
open(uri,:ssl_verify_mode => OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE)
```
For Ruby 1.8 you could do this:
```ruby
require 'open-uri'
require 'openssl'
url = 'https://www....'
proxy = 'http://...'
OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_PEER = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
puts open(url, :proxy => proxy).read
```
[Code found here](http://www.peterkrantz.com/2007/open-uri-cert-verification/)