How to speed read on Linux

http://xmodulo.com/2014/04/speed-read-linux.html

Have you heard of speed reading? Me neither. At least not before a startup called Spritz raised 3.5 Millions in seed money to develop an API that supposedly allows a user to read 1,000 words per minute.
The concept of speed reading is simple: slice a text into individual short segments, like a word or two, and flash these segments very quickly. The reader's eyes do not have to move at all during the process, sparing the time we normally need to skim a page. As this technology is brand new, there is no way to tell if your brain will explode or implode above that speed. No, apparently it is safe to use as your brain is fast enough to process the information. The API should become very handy once people get accustomed to it. Now if you are as excited as I am for this, but don't want to wait or prefer to get used to it now, good news: you can already try speed reading on your favorite OS today.
The following are three tools that allow you to speed read on Linux.

1. Spread0r

Based on Perl and Gtk2, spread0r (previously called Gritz) is a GPL software that takes a text file as an input, and then flashes you the content at a speed up to 1,000 words per minute. You should however try something slower at first, just to get the hang of it. The interface is simple, nearly minimalist: launching the lecture, choosing the speed, quitting, etc. The software could use a bit of improvement. I would suggest starting by taking something else than just a text file as input (you can convert yourself though), and maybe also a “no-distract” mode? Anyway, it is still very cool.
You can try spread0r by downloading the sources from github and simply launching the "spread0r.pl" file. Note that you will need Gtk2 and Perl installed on your system first.

$ sudo apt-get install libgtk2-perl (for Debian/Ubuntu)
$ sudo pacman -S gtk2-perl (for Archlinux)
$ sudo yum install perl-gtk2 (for Fedora)

2. Spreed

Aside from ebooks and word documents, the stuff I read the most on my computer are Internet articles (yes this is meta). However, it would really be a chore if I had to copy and paste what I want to read into a text editor, save it as a txt file, and then launch it in Spread0r. Hopefully, the Chrome extension Spreed is here to cope with that. After installing and enabling Spreed on your Chrome browser, you can just select the text you want to speed read, right-click on it, and choose "Spreed selected text." It will open a new window in which the words will be flashed to you. I like the integration with Chrome, and the level of thought which was put into the extension. You can, for example, select the color set of the windows, the number of words at a time, the font size, launch the lecture and pause it via the space bar, and even go above 4,000 words per minute (that's not speed reading anymore though, it's just staring).

3. Squirt

If you liked the idea of speed reading from within your browser, but do not have Chrome, or do not like the idea of an extension, the solution is the bookmarklet Squirt. Despite the name which seems to come out of nowhere, Squirt is currently my favorite speed reading utility. It is efficient and easy to use. Add it from here by "drag'n'dropping" the big blue button into your favorite bar. You can then call it from any web page, after selecting some text or not, and a fancy white panel will overlay the page. You can control the lecture with intuitive shortcuts. The interface is beautiful, and it can also go above 4,000 words per minute.

Bonus: Zethos

If none of the options mentioned so far pleases you, and you are a coder, then you will be happy to know that there exist a free and open source JS code called Zethos that you will be able to use in your own speed reading apps. You can check it out on github, and bravo to its creator.
In conclusion, you have now no excuse to ignore speed reading on your favorite OS. Just try not to get your brain fried. Which one of these solutions do you prefer? Or do you have another one not mentioned here? Also do you really think that speed reading can develop in the future? Let us know in the comment.

Evil Kali Access Point Red A Kali Linux Evil Wireless Access Point

http://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux/kali-linux-evil-wireless-access-point

A few days ago, we had the opportunity to deploy a rogue access point that would steal user credentials using a fake, captive web portal, and provide MITM’d Internet services via 3G. We needed reliability and scalability in our environment as there would potentially be a large amount of, erm….”participants” in this wireless network. We were pretty happy with the result and quickly realized that we had created a new “Kali Linux recipe”. Or in other words, we could create a custom, bootable wireless evil access point image, which could do all sorts of wondrous things.

Required Hardware

• We used a battery-powered Raspberry Pi for this project, however the instructions below will work on pretty much anything that can run Kali Linux and has 2 free USB ports – ARM and virtual environments included.
• A supported USB wireless adapter; we used an old Netgear WNA1000 we had lying around.
• A supported 3G modem; we found a TP-Link MA180 3.75G HSUPA USB Adapter in a local shop.

Simple Setup of DNS and DHCP

We ended up building our wireless access point using hostapd and dnsmasq using a relatively simple setup. We found that this gave the most reliable performance and was the easiest to configure. In addition, using dnsmasq allowed us to easily control spoofed DNS queries. We start by installing all our prerequisites:

apt-get install -y hostapd dnsmasq wireless-tools iw wvdial

Once everything is installed, we configure dnsmasq to serve DHCP and DNS on the wireless interface and then start the dnsmasq service.

sed -i 's#^DAEMON_CONF=.*#DAEMON_CONF=/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf#' /etc/init.d/hostapd

cat <<EOF > /etc/dnsmasq.conf
log-facility=/var/log/dnsmasq.log
#address=/#/10.0.0.1
#address=/google.com/10.0.0.1
interface=wlan0
dhcp-range=10.0.0.10,10.0.0.250,12h
dhcp-option=3,10.0.0.1
dhcp-option=6,10.0.0.1
#no-resolv
log-queries
EOF

service start dnsmasq

Setting up the 3G Connection

This part was surprisingly simple using the Gnome NetworkManager GUI interface. Adding a new 3G connection and going through the automated wizard got us online in a couple of minutes. Once connected, we saw our new ppp0 WAN interface, now providing us with Internet access. Alternatively, this setup can be performed at the command line using wvdial. Now that we have our WAN connection setup, let’s move on to setting up the wireless access point.

Setting up the Wireless Access Point

Setting up the access point is a breeze using hostapd. We configure an IP for the wireless interface, and configure iptables rules for NAT. Then we quickly configure the hostapd service to use our wireless interface to run an access point with the SSID “FreeWifi”. Once the service is started a wireless network called “FeeWifi” should show up. Anyone connecting to this network would be routed thorough our Kali box, out to the internet over 3g.

ifconfig wlan0 up
ifconfig wlan0 10.0.0.1/24

iptables -t nat -F
iptables -F
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ppp0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -A FORWARD -i wlan0 -o ppp0 -j ACCEPT
echo '1' > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

cat <<EOF > /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
ssid=FreeWifi
channel=1
# Yes, we support the Karma attack.
#enable_karma=1
EOF

service start hostapd

Bootable Kali Access Point ISO Recipe

Using live-build, we can create a custom Kali Linux ISO image that will boot up into a “rogue AP”. Certain elements such as the wireless and 3G interface names (wlan0, ppp0, etc) would be pre-configured during the live-build process. We’ve gone ahead and set up a Kali Recipe which worked perfectly in our VMware environment, with both the wireless card and 3G modem connected to the VM at boot time.

Doing the Evil Stuff

There’s a whole bunch of evil stuff to be done once we’re in the middle of communications. MITM tools like responder, evilgrade and sslsplit come to mind. In our case, selectively spoofing DNS queries and redirecting users to our own phishing site was sufficient for our task. Lastly, we’ve added the Karma patch to our hostapd package, which causes the AP to probe requests not just for itself but for any ESSID requested. This allows the AP to act as a lure to draw in any clients probing for known networks. Let the games begin!

Looking for more cool stuff? Kali linux Dojo

Looking for more cool stuff to do with Kali Linux? Want to get some mind bending hands-on experience with the distribution? You should check out our Kali Linux Dojo!

Docker 101: What it is and why it’s important

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2361465/cloud-computing/docker-101-what-it-is-and-why-it-s-important.html

Credit:Shutterstock

Eight burning questions, including: Will containers kill the VM?

Docker is a hot topic this week. If you’re unfamiliar with what this technology is or what it means for your business, here’s a guide.
What is it?
Docker is both an open source project and the name of a startup that focuses on Linux Containers. Containers are the idea of running multiple applications on a single host. It’s similar to compute virtualization, but instead of virtualizing a server to create multiple operating systems, containers offer a more lightweight alternative by essentially virtualizing the operating system, allowing multiple workloads to run on a single host.
Why all the hype?
Docker the company has released the 1.0 version of its product this week (read more about the 1.0 release here), and in conjunction with doing so is hosting an event named DockerCon. Docker Founder and CTO Solomon Hykes said the open source Docker project has been downloaded (for free) more than 2.75 million times and more than 460 contributors helped create this version. Docker has built up partners to support its product and service providers are jumping on board to offer Docker services.

Featured Resource

Presented by Riverbed Technology

10 Common Problems APM Helps You Solve

Practical advice for you to take full advantage of the benefits of APM and keep your IT environment
Learn More

+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Six Docker services making serious waves +
Where did containers come from?
Containers, and specifically Linux containers, are not new. Tech giants such as Oracle, HP and IBM have been using containers for decades. In recent years, though, the open source project Docker has gained popularity as an alternative, or complement to virtualization. Recognizing a market opportunity to provide support around the open source project, a company named dotcloud was formed, but was renamed Docker. In January the company received a Series B funding round worth $15 million, led by Greylock Partners. Red Hat has committed a major investment in the company as well. (Read more about Red Hat’s work with Docker here.)

How do they work?
The open source project has two major aspects: cgroups, or Control Groups, which define the compute, memory and disk i/o that a workload needs; and namesakes, which isolate and separate each of the workloads.
Docker the commercial product has two major components as well: Docker Engine, which is the core software platform that enables users to create and use containers; and Docker Hub, a SaaS-based service for creating and sharing Docker services. With the release of the 1.0 version and Docker Hub, the company says it has more than 14,000 applications that can be used with its containers.
Are containers a VM killer?
Writes tech blogger Scott Lowe. “Containers, on the other hand, generally offer less isolation but lower overhead through sharing certain portions of the host kernel and operating system instance.” Containers are an attractive option for environments where there is only a single operating system, whereas virtual machines and hypervisors can be useful if there is a need to run multiple OSs in an environment. VMs are not going away, but containers could offer a better way to run certain applications instead of virtualization. (Read more about how containers can replace VMs here.)
What are they used for?
One of the major benefits of containers is portability. Containers can run on top of virtual machines, or bare metal servers. They can run on-premises or in the cloud. This has made one of the earliest popular use cases of containers be around software development. Coders can write applications, place it in a container, and then the application can be moved across various environments, as it is encapsulated inside the container.
How much does it cost?
Docker the open source project is free to download from GitHub. Docker the product offers privately hosted repositories of containers, which are about $1 per container. See full Docker pricing here.
Who else is involved?
With all the buzz around Docker, many tech companies are looking to get in on the action. Docker is building up its partnerships, too. The commercial version of Docker comes with support from the company, and integrations with a variety of other software platforms, including Linux distros from Red Hat, SuSE and Ubuntu, and other services like scheduling tools such as Puppet, Chef, Ansible and Jenkins.
Other service provider vendors are enabling Docker on their platforms. Rackspace CTO John Engates, for example, wrote a blog post this week saying that initially he and the cloud hosting company were not terribly impressed with Docker. But then after customers started using it and asking for Rackspace to support it, the company was “pulled” into the community, Engates says. Now, they’re converts; Engates calls containerization “next generation virtualization.”
Rackspace is using Docker to test and deploy new applications in various environments; it’s even using containers in networking, because it allows for multi-tenancy of software-based load balancers. The biggest impact though, he says, could be the way containers could usher in an era of portability of workloads across environments. “Docker could provide the abstraction that makes swapping workloads between clouds possible. They don’t have to be OpenStack clouds either. OS-level virtualization makes the application agnostic to the underlying infrastructure. Docker could enable spot markets for cloud computing and the ability for users to find a best-fit solution for their needs.”
He goes on to list some of the ways users can get involved in the Docker community if they’re interested.