Ideas for a week project

On 9th of August I return from vacations and I decided to research on some new area in the week after. Currently, there are two ideas, both easy-to-implement: 1. Ping my host every 5 minutes and send me email if down I know there are many websites which touch this topic but; Most of them are limited and need subscription. I want something basic, to do just what I want. WHY: learn basic ...