From: "Peña, Botp" <botp@...>
Date: 2008-09-11T18:26:28+09:00
Subject: Re: How to check if a webpage exists

From: Davide Benini [mailto:nutsmuggler@hotmail.com] 
#....
#    open "www.does.not.exist.sdadasdas.com", :proxy=>true

fwiw, mine does not work if i do not qualify the url, ie should be

   open "http://www.does.not.exist.sdadasdas.com", :proxy=>true

note the http://

but your case is weird, since it always works regardless :)