protected function _initialize() {
        $this->_ch = curl_init();
        $this->_last_info = FALSE;
        curl_setopt($this->_ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($this->_ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
        curl_setopt($this->_ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 60);
        curl_setopt($this->_ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 60);
        curl_setopt($this->_ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "{$this->_username}:{$this->_password}");

        return;
    }