Recently, I've found myself loading up the Ubuntu Cloud Images site way too frequently just to copy and paste an up to date AMI id.

I hacked together a script to grab the json source, filter it on some provided attributes and output a table in your terminal. My buddy JD helped out with some refactoring and it's a much more pleasant way to find that AMI id you need.

$ ubuntu-cloud-images suite:precise region:us-west-2 type:ebs
+-----------+---------+-------+------+------------+--------------+---------------------------------------------+
| region    | suite   | arch  | type | date       | ami          | launch                                      |
+-----------+---------+-------+------+------------+--------------+---------------------------------------------+
| us-west-2 | precise | amd64 | ebs  | 20121026.1 | ami-7eab224e | ec2-run-instances -k mwhiteley ami-7eab224e |
| us-west-2 | precise | i386  | ebs  | 20121026.1 | ami-7cab224c | ec2-run-instances -k mwhiteley ami-7cab224c |
+-----------+---------+-------+------+------------+--------------+---------------------------------------------+

Next up, I'll post my script that I use to run instances that waits for ssh access and drops you into a shell.