Presenters

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🚀 Embrace the “Why Not?” Mindset: Building Exporters for Everything 🤖

Hey everyone! 👋 Let’s talk about something incredibly rewarding – building exporters. This wasn’t a deeply technical presentation, but rather a passionate plea to observe, experiment, and create. The speaker’s core message? Don’t get bogged down in “why” – ask “why not?” Instead, focus on what you enjoy, and then find ways to expose metrics from those passions. 💡

🧱 The Power of “Why Not?” 🧱

The speaker’s central argument is beautifully simple: don’t get stuck analyzing what should be measured. Instead, explore what can be measured, driven by your own interests. He used his love of programming as an example – he enjoyed coding, even if he wasn’t a “good” programmer. This led him to create a push exporter for 3D printers, not because he needed to, but because he enjoyed seeing the data in Grafana. 📊

🛠️ From Personal Projects to Global Impact 🛠️

This seemingly small project had a surprisingly big impact. He ended up helping a researcher at a German university with their 3D printer research – a fantastic example of how exposing metrics can benefit others. He strongly encourages open sourcing projects, recognizing that it’s not always feasible within a company, but the potential for collaboration is huge. 🌎

🎯 Exporters: A Playground for Data 🎯

So, what are exporters? Essentially, they’re tools that pull data from various sources and make it accessible. The speaker has created a collection of exporters, including:

  • 3D Printer Exporter: Written in Golang, using Prometheus as a backend. (Demo available at Grafana!)
  • OBD Exporters: For cars, similar to a diagnostic dongle.
  • CSGO Exporter: (Sadly, no longer relevant due to the game’s change)
  • NFS Exporter: (For racing games – speed isn’t the focus here!)
  • Call of Duty Exporter: Still in the planning stages, highlighting the potential for a vast ecosystem of exporters.

⚙️ How to Build Your Own Exporters ⚙️

The speaker outlined two primary approaches:

  1. Observe and Expose: This is about capturing data from existing systems – things you don’t control. Think:

    • Home Brewing: Monitoring yeast activity with Wi-Fi data. 🍺
    • Soil Sensors: Tracking environmental conditions. 🌱
    • Fun Controllers: Because why not? 👾
    • REST APIs: Almost anything with a REST API can be exported using JSON.

  2. Instrument Your Applications: This involves adding metrics, logs, and traces directly into your own software. Tools like Prometheus and OpenTelemetry are key here. 📡

💾 Combining Exporters for Maximum Insight 💾

Don’t be afraid to combine exporters! The speaker demonstrated the potential of merging GPS data with OBD data – perfect for tracking the performance of a vehicle. 🦾

🎯 Targeting Your Audience 🎯

The speaker admitted to initially focusing his efforts on “boops guys” (likely referring to hardware enthusiasts). He emphasized the importance of considering your target audience when building exporters – understanding who will benefit from the data you’re exposing.

✨ The Bigger Picture ✨

Ultimately, this talk was a call to action. It’s about embracing curiosity, building tools that reflect your passions, and sharing those tools with the world. Don’t just collect metrics; create them. Exporters aren’t just about data; they’re about empowering exploration and fostering a community of makers and observers. 💫

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