With 200+ plugins, Telegraf has a wide variety of methods for scraping, writing, and querying data to and from InfluxDB. However, sometimes users need to perform data collection outside of the capabilities of Telegraf. Perhaps they need to collect custom data and monitor application performance. Maybe they want to take advantage of external tools and libraries to create beautiful web-based visualizations for their users.
Algorithms are at the heart of the technologies we use in virtually every facet of our daily lives — formulas and processes that help us connect, solve problems and accomplish amazing things. Things like better speech recognition and landing an autonomous rocket on a drone ship, or giving us really great Netflix recommendations. But an algorithm is just a set of rules or a set of tasks to perform given a certain input.
Open source software development can have a reputation for abrasive behavior. The search community is a clear counterexample for me, with a culture that emphasizes respect and acceptance. This culture played an important part in my own path to open source development. A little over six years ago, I was a wide-eyed software engineer settling into my first full-time job.