Bug trackers are great. They are a critical tool for open source development – as a collaboration medium for teams, as a way for projects to communicate back-and-forth with users, and as an organizational tools for individual developers. But as open source software spreads further and further, one inevitably finds oneself with a bit of a Web 2.0 problem – every major project uses its own, separate bug tracker. The more projects you're involved with, the easier it is for information to get lost among all the clutter and noise. That's where Entomologist comes in, providing one interface for multiple bug-tracking systems, whether you are a developer managing your code or a user following progress.
If you pay much attention to the futurists on the Web these days, no doubt you're familiar with the term “Internet Of Things.” It may be yet-another-buzzword, but the central concept is quite real: the spread of low power, Internet-connected devices that use wireless networks to communicate with our PCs and servers. After all, you don't need a computer in your water heater or electric meter: you just need a sensor, and way to read it remotely. Linux will be a major player in this space, but most developers still aren't familiar with the network standards that make it work, like IEEE 802.15.4.
Let's face it: everybody likes having data, but nobody likes staring at a column of numbers. If you cannot sculpt your raw data into a visualization that either illuminates the problem or helps you find the solution, then you're only halfway done. Luckily there are tools like Gnuplot available, which allow you to manually or automatically generate high-quality visual representations of your data sets. The new release, 4.6, adds some important features from a mathematical standpoint — and just as importantly, many updates to the output framework, including support for generating interactive HTML5 displays.