Question: I have hacked my NAS-01g into a debian server and use it to regularly download stock quote and earthquake information from the web. I was on a trip last week and I turned off my sever at home, but when I come back, I can no long gain access to the server. Considering re-configuring the server as very time-consuming, I am thinking of migrating my existing server to cloud.

I have a few requirements here:

* server on 24/7
* use cron to hourly call R to extract data from somewhere, say yahoo finance
* (optional) backup and encrypt my gmail account
* (optional) host django server and I am learning to use it now

I am thinking of using amazon-EC2 or Linode. I have tried amazon-EC2 a bit, but the pricing scheme seems very complicated for me, and I want the server to be as cheap as possible as it is not really that mission critical work. I wonder Linode is simpler for a non-system admin like me.

Hope my question won't be considered as off-topic here.

Thanks in advance.

Answer: 
Belongs on ServerFault, but I think Linode is a good candidate. They have monthly plans that don't cost a fortune and you can get a debian install on it. (we just installed one for work and selected Debian, so I'm 100% sure).
Pricing scheme for Amazon is more complicated, but more transparent.
They separate in Machine Hours (EC2 Hours), Data Transfer In/Out and storage.
You can have too Elastic IPs (static IPs) and Load Balancers (LBs).
And you can choose if you want reserved instances (1yr/3yr term) or on-demand instances(more expensive but able to terminate instances whenever you want).

They have their own monthly calculator, you can check it here: <http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html>