gistfile1.txt

require 'benchmark'

C = 100
Benchmark.bm do |x|
  x.report do
    C.times do
      `pbpaste`
    end
  end
  x.report do
    C.times do
      IO.popen('pbpaste', 'r+') do |f|
        f.read
      end
    end
  end
end

# Ruby 1.9.3
#       user     system      total        real
#   0.010000   0.050000   1.660000 (  1.879449)
#   0.010000   0.060000   1.740000 (  1.952888)