code: def get_system_status(self):
          
          try:
              api_server_status_link = self.api_server + '/status_msg?version=' +\
                  version_number
              response = urllib2.urlopen(api_server_status_link, timeout=1)
              status_msg = json.load(response)['status']
          except urllib2.HTTPError:
              status_msg = "Sorry, can't connect to psiturk.org, please check\
                  your internet connection.\nYou will not be able to create new\
                  hits, but testing locally should work.\n"
          return status_msg
docs: get_system_status: