diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index ac8cc01..a505b9a 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -19,32 +19,32 @@ end
 
 ############################
 
-require 'spec/rake/spectask'
+require "rspec/core/rake_task"
 
 desc "Run all specs"
 task :spec => ["spec:unit", "spec:integration"]
 
 desc "Run unit specs"
-Spec::Rake::SpecTask.new('spec:unit') do |t|
-  t.spec_opts = ['--colour --format progress --loadby mtime --reverse']
-  t.spec_files = FileList['spec/*_spec.rb']
+RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new('spec:unit') do |t|
+  t.rspec_opts = ['--colour --format progress']
+  t.pattern = 'spec/*_spec.rb'
 end
 
 desc "Run integration specs"
-Spec::Rake::SpecTask.new('spec:integration') do |t|
-  t.spec_opts = ['--colour --format progress --loadby mtime --reverse']
-  t.spec_files = FileList['spec/integration/*_spec.rb']
+RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new('spec:integration') do |t|
+  t.rspec_opts = ['--colour --format progress']
+  t.pattern = 'spec/integration/*_spec.rb'
 end
 
 desc "Print specdocs"
-Spec::Rake::SpecTask.new(:doc) do |t|
-  t.spec_opts = ["--format", "specdoc", "--dry-run"]
-  t.spec_files = FileList['spec/*_spec.rb']
+RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:doc) do |t|
+  t.rspec_opts = ["--format", "specdoc", "--dry-run"]
+  t.pattern = 'spec/*_spec.rb'
 end
 
 desc "Run all examples with RCov"
-Spec::Rake::SpecTask.new('rcov') do |t|
-  t.spec_files = FileList['spec/*_spec.rb']
+RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new('rcov') do |t|
+  t.pattern = 'spec/*_spec.rb'
   t.rcov = true
   t.rcov_opts = ['--exclude', 'examples']
 end
diff --git a/spec/base.rb b/spec/base.rb
index d687c9a..1494a0b 100644
--- a/spec/base.rb
+++ b/spec/base.rb
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
 def is_ruby_19?
-  RUBY_VERSION == '1.9.1' or RUBY_VERSION == '1.9.2'
+  RUBY_VERSION > '1.9'
 end
 
-Encoding.default_internal = Encoding.default_external = "ASCII-8BIT" if is_ruby_19?
-
 require 'rubygems'
 
 begin
diff --git a/spec/integration/request_spec.rb b/spec/integration/request_spec.rb
index f7774ea..6175e5e 100644
--- a/spec/integration/request_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/integration/request_spec.rb
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ describe RestClient::Request do
       expect { request.execute }.to_not raise_error
     end
 
+    # This doesn't works any more (under 1.9.3 at the very least). Exceptions in verify_callback are ignored.
+    # see https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/trunk/ext/openssl/ossl.c#L237
     it "is unsuccessful with an incorrect ca_file" do
       request = RestClient::Request.new(
         :method => :get,
diff --git a/spec/payload_spec.rb b/spec/payload_spec.rb
index 89ded79..0938d3c 100644
--- a/spec/payload_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/payload_spec.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# encoding: binary
 require File.join(File.dirname(File.expand_path(__FILE__)), 'base')
 
 describe RestClient::Payload do
@@ -108,7 +109,7 @@ baz\r
 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="foo"; filename="master_shake.jpg"\r
 Content-Type: image/jpeg\r
 \r
-#{IO.read(f.path)}\r
+#{File.open(f.path, 'rb'){|bin| bin.read}}\r
 --#{m.boundary}--\r
       EOS
     end
@@ -121,7 +122,7 @@ Content-Type: image/jpeg\r
 Content-Disposition: form-data; filename="master_shake.jpg"\r
 Content-Type: image/jpeg\r
 \r
-#{IO.read(f.path)}\r
+#{File.open(f.path, 'rb'){|bin| bin.read}}\r
 --#{m.boundary}--\r
       EOS
     end
@@ -136,7 +137,7 @@ Content-Type: image/jpeg\r
 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="foo"; filename="foo.txt"\r
 Content-Type: text/plain\r
 \r
-#{IO.read(f.path)}\r
+#{File.open(f.path, 'rb'){|bin| bin.read}}\r
 --#{m.boundary}--\r
       EOS
     end
@@ -160,7 +161,7 @@ foo\r
 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="foo[bar]"; filename="foo.txt"\r
 Content-Type: text/plain\r
 \r
-#{IO.read(f.path)}\r
+#{File.open(f.path, 'rb'){|bin| bin.read}}\r
 --#{m.boundary}--\r
       EOS
     end
@@ -230,5 +231,14 @@ Content-Type: text/plain\r
     it "should recognize other payloads that can be streamed" do
       RestClient::Payload.generate(StringIO.new('foo')).should be_kind_of(RestClient::Payload::Streamed)
     end
+
+    # hashery gem introduces Hash#read convenience method. Existence of #read method used to determine of content is streameable :/
+    it "shouldn't treat hashes as streameable" do
+      RestClient::Payload.generate({"foo" => 'bar'}).should be_kind_of(RestClient::Payload::UrlEncoded)
+    end
+  end
+
+  class HashMapForTesting < Hash
+    alias :read :[]
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/request_spec.rb b/spec/request_spec.rb
index b0b2943..ef980c9 100644
--- a/spec/request_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/request_spec.rb
@@ -111,8 +111,7 @@ describe RestClient::Request do
 
   it "uses netrc credentials" do
     URI.stub!(:parse).and_return(mock('uri', :user => nil, :password => nil, :host => 'example.com'))
-    File.stub!(:stat).and_return(mock('stat', :mode => 0600))
-    IO.stub!(:read).and_return("machine example.com login a password b")
+    Netrc.stub!(:read).and_return('example.com' => ['a', 'b'])
     @request.parse_url_with_auth('http://example.com/resource')
     @request.user.should == 'a'
     @request.password.should == 'b'
@@ -120,8 +119,7 @@ describe RestClient::Request do
 
   it "uses credentials in the url in preference to netrc" do
     URI.stub!(:parse).and_return(mock('uri', :user => 'joe%20', :password => 'pass1', :host => 'example.com'))
-    File.stub!(:stat).and_return(mock('stat', :mode => 0600))
-    IO.stub!(:read).and_return("machine example.com login a password b")
+    Netrc.stub!(:read).and_return('example.com' => ['a', 'b'])
     @request.parse_url_with_auth('http://joe%20:pass1@example.com/resource')
     @request.user.should == 'joe '
     @request.password.should == 'pass1'
diff --git a/spec/response_spec.rb b/spec/response_spec.rb
index b43b6cd..5048d19 100644
--- a/spec/response_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/response_spec.rb
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ describe RestClient::Response do
     end
 
     it "follows a redirection and keep the cookies" do
-      stub_request(:get, 'http://some/resource').to_return(:body => '', :status => 301, :headers => {'Set-Cookie' => CGI::Cookie.new('Foo', 'Bar'), 'Location' => 'http://new/resource', })
+      stub_request(:get, 'http://some/resource').to_return(:body => '', :status => 301, :headers => {'Set-Cookie' => 'Foo=Bar', 'Location' => 'http://new/resource', })
       stub_request(:get, 'http://new/resource').with(:headers => {'Cookie' => 'Foo=Bar'}).to_return(:body => 'Qux')
       RestClient::Request.execute(:url => 'http://some/resource', :method => :get).body.should == 'Qux'
     end