Have you tried lambda + s3 instead of yahoo pipes + cron? (both time and http activation is possible) I've done something on lambda recently I'd use pipes for (if it still existed) and been quite happy with the result.
I sort of wanted to find a use-case for Pipes and IFTTT, but I couldn't. I think I used it a few times to hunt for craigslist deals on vintage guitar amplifiers or something, but what specifically functionality do you (and OP) miss about it?
The most complex thing I used pipes for was to pull in content from basically every site around the web that I have an account on and aggregate them on a blog of sorts.
The whole idea was that sites I use for things come and go. I could jump from service to service, update my pipes setup. If a site died I'd just find a replacement and move on. I always had all my content harvested and stored in my own db.
Examples;
* any youtube video I added to my favorites would be auto embedded on my blog
* posts on blogger, wordpress, etc all pull into the one place
* images fav'd on deviantart
* pages book marked using diigo
* photos saved to whatever photo site I was currently using
Here's a screenshot from a long time ago when I originally set it up (2009):
