ssh -t -t -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no jdennison@$name<<EOF1
exit
EOF1

instance_id=$(ec2-run-instances -g $secGroup -t t1.micro $ami | awk ‘/INSTANCE/{print $2}’)
echo $instance_id

name=$(ec2-describe-instances $instance_id | awk ‘/INSTANCE/{print $4}’)
while [ $name = pending ] ; do
sleep 5
name=$(ec2-describe-instances $instance_id | awk ‘/INSTANCE/{print $4}’)
echo $name
done
sleep 10
OUT=0
OUT1=0

ssh -t -t -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no jdennison@$name< exit
EOF
OUT=$?
if [ $OUT -ne 0 ];
then
echo “failed”
sleep 15
ssh -t -t -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no jdennison@$name< exit
EOF1
OUT1=$?
fi

if [ $OUT1 -ne 0 ];
then
echo “SECOND FAIL”
sleep 10
fi

http://web.mit.edu/stardev/cluster/

Can you ping your instance? do they get some sort of sub domain name or IP? if yes you can then ping it with regular ping and continue as soon as it responds.

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no ubuntu@$name

it works!!

There is a status attribute you can check, this still means polling the instance with ec2-describe-instances.

As suggested, you could run a script after the instance starts which actually ping you instead.
Many people launch a skeleton instance and use that “after start” functionality to load software, scripts and data. If you combine with a provisioning tool such as puppet/chef, you have the instance ask the puppet/chef master what it needs to install.