This project can be compiled into either a Kafka Consumer, or a Kafka Producer. Both the Consumer and producer are highly configurable via command-line switches.
Also the producer is capable of sending auto-generated messages of a specified size, at a specified interval; It can also be used to send messages typed by the user in the terminal.
The consumer can either display every message it receives or simply display a count of messages received. I have used this custom application for testing various Kafka Clusters and verifying their setup.