set up a curl alias (acurl) to include credentials so that you don't have to type them out

acurl.py

import base64
import os
import sys

user = raw_input('username:')
password = raw_input('password:')

b64encoded = base64.urlsafe_b64encode('{0}:{1}'.format(user,password))

shell = os.path.basename(os.environ.get('SHELL'))

if shell == 'bash':
  shellrc = '{0}/.{1}_profile'.format(os.environ.get('HOME'), shell)
else:
  shellrc = '{0}/.{1}rc'.format(os.environ.get('HOME'), shell)

equalizer = ' '
if shell in ('bash', 'zsh'):
  equalizer = '='
elif shell in ('tcsh', 'csh'):
  equalizer = ' '
else:
  sys.exit('unsupported shell (bash, zsh, tcsh, csh)')
  
aliasline = 'alias acurl{0}"curl -s --proto \'=https\' -g -H \'Authorization: Basic {1}\'"'.format(equalizer, b64encoded)

print 'Adding the following line'
print aliasline
print 'to {0}'.format(shellrc)

with open(shellrc, 'a') as rcfile:
  rcfile.write('\n### Added by acurl.py\n' )
  rcfile.write(aliasline + '\n')

Clever :D