I do a little with Joomla! and Drupal as well. I think I’m more on the Drupal side of the fence now. Still, my main rapper snapper is definitely WordPress.

I’m a big fan of WordPress. I’ve been using it for several years. That might not seem like that long but in web years that’s an eternity. Almost since the beginning when Matt & company created it from b2.

I don’t just use it for blogs anymore either. I use it for entire sites. With all the plugins available, and the ability to build and customize themes, I’ve found I can do just about anything I need to do in WordPress. It works out great for the client too because they get varying levels of CMS ability.

The other great component is security. there is this huge community that is constantly improving and securing WordPress. I still get the occassional IT person that has questions about what is WordPress, who is using it, is it secure, etc?

Well, there are a ton of sites using WordPress. [Will Ferrel voice]Work the google machine on the internets and you might be surprised. The New York Times comes to mind as does, the National Football League and another favorite site of mine Techcrunch. Here’s a link to the stats page for some more.

My new favorite one though. This link to government agencies using WordPress. And now, the tie-in to the title of this post…the National Security Agency. Yes, the NSA. Can anyone fill me in on this…without having to hurt me after of course

I consider myself a more advanced user of the web and of computers. And the biggest, nastiest, sweatiest moments of my computer experience have generally centered around some sort of virus scare.

There is nothing scarier to me then when I’m running my maintenance scan and that warning starts blaring. The system on my main production computer is avast! When it detects a virus a huge nuclear warning like icon comes up with an accompanying siren. Yes, it grabs your attention.

I used to be a big Norton fan but they’ve lost my business over the years. The product got too slow and started to interfere with other valid software. So as usual, I was able to find some free alternatives. I can recommend avast! or AVG Free.

They’re at the top of the list from the download squad and that’s no surprise. They’re pretty popular. So if you’re reading one of those articles that says antivirus isn’t as important as it used to be because everything is cloud based…well, I might have a bridge to see you really cheap

From time to time I need to work onsite at a clients office. This can be problematic to say the least. Not only because I have to eschew my traditional bunny slippers but because I have to leave my command center. Like most people that make their living using a computer, I have a certain setup that I like. All my tools are there and configured just how I like them so when I have to leave, I get a little grumpy about it. Portableapps helps soften the blow. What are portableapps you ask? Well, it’s basically software that turns your USB stick into an operating system that can run certain applications in a portable version. It’s great. Visit portableapps.com and you can download the software and then pick the applications you want to add. I have a two-gig stick that hangs around my neck that has a ton of documents I need as well as OpenOffice, Firefox, a bunch of useful utilities, and, of course, my Texas Holdem game. Good times. Check it out and let me know if it proves useful.

Screencasting is using an application to record your desktop as you’re using it, including audio, and convert it into a flash animation video file that people can watch in their web browsers. To do this I use a software called CamStudio. It works very well and again, it’s free. Try it out.

PrimoOnline provides a super-fast way to create PDF files online, without the need to install any PDF software. Simply upload your file, enter your email address, and our server-based PDF creator will quickly convert it to PDF and deliver it straight to your email inbox.

Very useful tool. The great part about it is that it’s online. There is also a desktop application you can download to create pdf’s through your applications. You can find that here.