> Does it strip off the html style garbage (like <) automatically?

Probably not, my guess would be.

I have a program that is dedicated to undoing HTML character
uglification (like < and H).
ftp.rodents.montreal.qc.ca:/mouse/hacks/andsharp.c.  It's not complete,
but it does enough of it to be useful, and if I've just missed a
character name, it's easy to add.  (The file is short enough to read
over in full if you can read C - which in your case should be no
problem.)

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML	       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B