A tiny script from U.S. network specialist Scott Iekel-Johnson extracts software licenses from source code. The oss-license-extract tool is now available in version 1.2.

The SysUsage monitoring tool is available in a new version 3.0 and provides a completely reworked Web interface.

The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol lets you program bots as automatic helpers. In this month's column, we let a bot log a session and store the results in a database.

Mozilla's bug tracker Bugzilla is now available in version 3.4. and developers have worked hard on the major release to make life for the user a lot easier.

Although a USB toy such as a polystyrene rocket launcher only includes a Windows CD, it works fine on Linux with a spot of reverse engineering. With libusb, this doesn't even require compiling a device driver – Perl controls the device from userspace.

With the GIMP image editing program, and a little help from Perl, you can enhance your digital photos and transform a modern image into a nostalgic turn-of-the-century shot.

One panel has a neat collection of applets and another has spectacular looks – but a combination of the two is rare. Now help draws nigh for the desktop: PerlPanel is extensible with do-it-yourself widgets.

If you are a bargain hunter, you might enjoy this Perl script that monitors price developments at Amazon and alerts you if Amazon suddenly drops the prices on the products you have been watching.