Thanks for the link - that's a useful read. So I signed up as indicated - but perhaps this free tier thing doesn't really work for accounts outside the USA eit

Thanks for the link - that's a useful read. So I signed up as indicated - but perhaps this free tier thing doesn't really work for accounts outside the USA either - as when trying to fire up an f1.micro instance it still says it's going to charge me (albeit out of the $300 free credit), so maybe I misunderstood something about the article.