gistfile1.rb

def better_fetch
  data = {}
  io = nil
  
  begin
    io = open(...)
  rescue OpenURI::HTTPError => e
    # Handle interesting http errors
  rescue Timeout::Error, StandardError
    # It was most likely a Net/Socket error we are not interested in, so just fail.
    return nil
  end
  
  data = Nokogiri::HTML(io)
  
  # process
  
  return data
end