diff --git a/tools/AWS.psm1 b/tools/AWS.psm1
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+# TODO: add the ability to additionally grab addresses given a tag -- this can
+# be used during continuous builds to identify the server on which to run tests
+
+
+# well, I changed a couple things
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:08 PM
+# not sure if they are all needed
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:09 PM
+# "&Expires=$expires&Filter.1.Name=tag%3AName&Filter.1.Value.1=$Name&" +
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:09 PM
+# forgot to escape the : in the tag:Name part
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:09 PM
+# $urlEncoded = (UrlEncode $base64Encoded)
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:09 PM
+# removed the .ToUpper() call
+# Ethan Brown
+# Jan-24 3:09 PM
+# yeah... i only used ToUpper because all the examples had upper case hex chars
+# Ethan Brown
+# Jan-24 3:09 PM
+# that was me grasping at straws ;0
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:09 PM
+# not sure if it matters or not, but I also changed the version
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:09 PM
+# "SignatureMethod=HmacSHA256&SignatureVersion=2&Version=2012-12-01")
+# Ethan Brown
+# Jan-24 3:10 PM
+# and I think that was *before* I removed the HttpUtility.UrlEncode and swapped in the AWS style one
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:10 PM
+# I think it was the ToUpper that was causing problems
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:10 PM
+# at least with the signature
+# Don McNamara
+# Jan-24 3:10 PM
+# oh, and the date format thing
+
+
+#Requires -Version 3.0
+
+$script:validUrlCharacters = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789-_.~"
+$script:iso8601DateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd\\THH:mm:ss.fff\\Z"
+
+# http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-query-api.html
+# https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-net/blob/master/AWSSDK/Amazon.Util/AWSSDKUtils.cs#L779
+function UrlEncode([string]$data, [bool]$path)
+{
+  $encoded = New-Object Text.StringBuilder($data.Length * 2)
+  $allowedChars = $script:validUrlCharacters
+  if ($path) { $allowedChars += "/:" }
+
+  [Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($data) |
+    % {
+      $char = [char]$_
+      if ($allowedChars.IndexOf($char) -ne -1) { [Void]$encoded.Append($char) }
+      else { [Void]$encoded.Append('%').Append([string]::Format('{0:X2}', [int]$char)) }
+    }
+
+  return $encoded.ToString()
+}
+
+function Describe-EC2Instance
+{
+  param
+  (
+    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
+    [string]
+    $Server = 'ec2.amazonaws.com', # 'ec2.us-east-1.amazonaws.com', # 'ec2.amazonaws.com',
+
+    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
+    [string]
+    $Name,
+
+    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
+    [string]
+    $AccessKey,
+
+    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
+    [string]
+    $SecretKey,
+
+    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
+    [DateTime]
+    $ExpireDate = [DateTime]::Now.AddMinutes(20)
+  )
+
+  # some code borrowed from AWS toolkit
+  # https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-net/blob/master/AWSSDK/Amazon.Util/AWSSDKUtils.cs
+
+  $expires = UrlEncode(
+    #$ExpireDate.ToUniversalTime().ToString('yyyy-MM-dd\\THH:mm:ss.fff\\Z')).ToUpper()
+    $ExpireDate.ToUniversalTime().ToString($script:iso8601DateFormat)).ToUpper()
+  #yyyy-MM-dd\\THH:mm:ss\\Z
+     #.ToString('o')
+  #.ToString ( "s", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture
+  #$awsBaseTime = [DateTime]::Parse("1970-01-01T00:00:00.0000000Z")
+  #$expires = [Convert]::ToInt32($ExpireDate.Subtract($awsBaseTime).TotalSeconds).ToString()
+  $httpRequestUri = '/'
+
+  # AWS encodings and .NET don't really play nice
+  # http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-query-api.html
+  $Name = (UrlEncode $Name) -replace '%2f', '/'
+  $Name = $Name -replace '\+', '%20'
+
+  $queryString = ("AWSAccessKeyId=$AccessKey&Action=DescribeInstances" +
+    "&Expires=$expires&Filter.1.Name=tag:Name&Filter.1.Value.1=$Name&" +
+    "SignatureMethod=HmacSHA256&SignatureVersion=2&Version=2012-12-01")
+
+  $stringToSign = "GET`n$($Server.ToLower())`n$httpRequestUri`n$queryString"
+
+  $sha = New-Object Security.Cryptography.HMACSHA256
+  $sha.Key = [Text.Encoding]::UTF8.Getbytes($SecretKey)
+  $seedBytes = [Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($stringToSign)
+  $digest = $sha.ComputeHash($seedBytes)
+  $base64Encoded = [Convert]::ToBase64String($digest)
+
+  $urlEncoded = (UrlEncode $base64Encoded).ToUpper()# -replace '%2f', '/'
+
+  $url = "https://$Server/?$queryString&Signature=$urlEncoded"
+  Write-Host $url
+  Invoke-RestMethod $url
+}
+
+
+