open URI: SocketError: getaddrinfo: hostname nor servname provided, or not known
===

I did this: 

    irb(main):010:0> open("http://www.google.com")
    RuntimeError: Non-HTTP proxy URI: gmax.agron.iastate.edu:80
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:203:in `open_http'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:616:in `buffer_open'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:164:in `open_loop'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:162:in `catch'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:162:in `open_loop'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:132:in `open_uri'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:518:in `open'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:30:in `open'
        from (irb):10
        from :0

Following this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4177394/openhttp-www-google-com-failed-but-wget-works I added :proxy => nil but then I got this error:

    irb(main):011:0> open("http://www.google.com", :proxy => nil)
    SocketError: getaddrinfo: hostname nor servname provided, or not known
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:560:in `initialize'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:560:in `open'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:560:in `connect'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:53:in `timeout'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:101:in `timeout'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:560:in `connect'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:553:in `do_start'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:542:in `start'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:242:in `open_http'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:616:in `buffer_open'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:164:in `open_loop'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:162:in `catch'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:162:in `open_loop'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:132:in `open_uri'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:518:in `open'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:30:in `open'
        from (irb):11