public function getRemoteContents(&$url, $timeout = 30, $redirect_max = 5, $ua = 'Mozilla/5.0', $fp = null)
    {
        $method = (function_exists('curl_exec') &&
            !ini_get('safe_mode') &&
            !ini_get('open_basedir')) ?
            'curlGetContents' : 'fsockGetContents';
        return $this->$method( $url, $timeout, $redirect_max, $ua, $fp );
    }