# Using the XML-RPC extension to format the XML package
$request = xmlrpc_encode_request("weblogUpdates.ping", array("Copenhagen Ruby Brigade", "http://copenhagenrb.dk/") );

# Using the cURL extension to send it off,
# first creating a custom header block
$header[] = "Host: rpc.technorati.com";
$header[] = "Content-type: text/xml";
$header[] = "Content-length: ".strlen($request) . "\r\n";
$header[] = $request;

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping"); # URL to post to
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1 ); # return into a variable
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $header ); # custom headers, see above
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'POST' ); # This POST is special, and uses its specified Content-type
$result = curl_exec( $ch ); # run!
curl_close($ch);

echo $result;