Mac's Picks is a collection of family friendly interesting and useful sites, updated weekly. These sites may be search engines, medical resources, household hints, educational resources, recipe sites, sites I call "head scratchers", and/or new sites dealing with all kinds of things of use to the general internet community. To find the criteria I use, simply click on the "Why and How Info" link on the right side of this page.

This page is updated on a weekly basis, each Tuesday evening Australian (Queensland) time (GMT + 9 hours according to the world clock). Please come back and visit us often.

Important Note: If you are returning to my page, welcome back! Please click your "Refresh" or "Reload" button on the top of your Internet browser to ensure you are seeing the current week's page of my "Picks of the Week". Also, I would love for you to make my site your home page. Simply click on Tools - Options in Explorer, or Edit - Preferences in Netscape, and click Use Current and it's done.

The younger members of your family who are students are most likely preparing for end of term or end of year exams. A friend reminded me this week that they are once again plaguing the student populations around the globe. Though it may sound daunting, those students in need can still find help completing those homework assignments and study necessities by visiting the CyberSleuth Kids.com Student Homework Helper site. It's full of all kinds of help to ensure that students get through to the next level, so take your younger family members there and have a look. And, watch this space as I will also bring other such sites to your attention in future weeks.

If you're a frequent visitor you'll know that I enjoy reading a few of the weblogs, or Blogs, online, and you'll also know that I even produce my own on the right side of this page. If you'd like to have a look at some that even I may not know about, hop over to the Weblogs.Com Recently Updated Weblogs site and have a look. This is one of those sites that updates each time you visit it, so it's maybe not a bad idea to bookmark it and see what new ones you can see each time you return. Remember, some will be good, some ok, and some.. well, we can't all be Shakespeare can we?

If you've ever tried looking up competent health information on the net you'll know that it's not an easy job. How do you know if a site actually knows what it's talking about or is someone's daydream? Well, one way to know is to check out the Health On the Net Foundation and have a look at the sites they have given awards to. This site awards recommendations to worthy health sites and that dear reader is in your best interest. So have a look and pick your online health info from places like this one.

If you've ever watched TechTV, in particular the show called "Call for Help" you'll know that the new owners have dumped that show. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. However, did you know that one of the presenters on that show, Cat, has her own website? If not, hop over to CatSchwartz.com and have a look around. You'll find that it is run by a very competent and knowledgeable young woman and is well worth checking back to. Great to see people like Cat still around to provide us all with good info.

I'm as much in favor of protecting endangered species as anyone you know, and I must admit, I didn't know that the "Tasmanian Shy Albatross" was one of those in danger (usually snagged in long-line fishing nets and drowned), nor that celebrities had adopted pet ones for their race to South Africa. Though it should be an interesting race to see (and keep track of on the net because of GPS devices strapped to the poor birds) I have to wonder why the Ladbrokes.comBig Bird Race site exists - or do I? I may be old fashioned and a "stick-in-the-mud" but seriously, can we find anything else to bet money on? Though I do realise that all of the profits from punters on this race go to a charity organization that is there to help this endangered species, do we really need to bet money on which Tasmanian Shy Albatross will cross the finish line first? *shakes head*. I must be getting older than even I thought. Instead of betting on the birds, how about donating that same amount to wildlife refuges or SPCAs in your own area? Makes sense to me.

On a more pleasant note, how about trying something different for your main meal today? Not sure what to try? Then hop over to the BBC - Food - Recipes site and see what the BBC has come up with recently. They may not be world renown for their recipes, but you must admit, they are usually a credible resource for news, so who knows? You might just find something here that sounds yummy, as my family and I did on one of the cooking shows today. And, yes, it was yummy but something on that in another edition. *smiles*

I have always been an avid magazine reader. I'll admit they usually fall into three categories, namely computer and net use (NetGuide, InternetAU, and PC World usually being the three I look at), news (Time, Newsweek, and The Bulletin being the three in that category), and travel. Travel? Well, I consider National Geographic a travel magazine of sorts in that it shows me places I've never been to, and also lets me reminisce about the many places in the world I have been. There is a new mag that sounds interesting, and though it isn't aimed at yours truly, it is a good sounding mag. If you feel it is aimed at you or that a member of your family may enjoy it, I suggest a hop over to the Journeywoman, journey woman, travel magazine for women and a browse around might be in order. You might find it is interesting enough to subscribe to. Enjoy.

A while back I was looking for sound files to make my own computer make crazy or interesting sounds emit from its speakers when certain things happen. Sorry, but the "ding" just doesn't do it for me (or anyone else I've ever talked with). In my search I came across the Piano Lady Nancy's Wavs site and really had a blast downloading and playing some of these. If you're into piano sounds, then you'll love this site. Enjoy.

How often do you check to find out if the version of what ever software you've installed on your computer is current? I have over 70 "other" programs installed on mine (and no I don't use them all but when I need them, they are there). I have found that if I visit the VersionTracker Windows site I can keep a pretty good check on the ones I have and ensure that I do have the latest version. After all, why not have the one that actually works? *smiles* This one is worth a bookmark for future use.

Though there are relatively easy ways to learn how to delete things from emails you have been sent, so that you can forward them on to your friends in their original form (I know, I know, it just wastes bandwidth but lots of folk do it correctly?), but you haven't the time to learn how to do it yourself, then hop over to the PaperCut (emailStripper) site and download their free program to do it for you. They state "emailStripper is a free program for cleaning the ">" and other formatting characters out of your emails. It will restore "forwarded" or "replied" emails back to their original state so they're easier to read. This obviously isn't all these folk do, so if you have a read of what else they produce you might find something else that is useful. In the mean time, enjoy.

You use MS Internet Explorer as your web browser don't you? If not, I'll bet it's Netscape, right? Well, believe it or not there are at least half a dozen other browsers out there that just might be better, and I will try to provide links for you in the next few weeks so that you can try them all out, and then make an informed choice as to which one should be your default one. One of them is the FlashPeakSlimBrowserDownload browser and if you do just that, go there, download and install it and try it out, you might find it has some nice improvements that you think any browser should have. That, and the fact that it's much smaller than most of the others, makes it a good alternative in my book. Give it a try, but until you do decide, don't let it make itself your "default browser" (and yes it will ask you when you run it - just say no). Give it a try. It's worth the look.

You know that I find sites on my own, and that others send them to me. And remember, I'm always looking for good sites to showcase here so don't be shy about emailing me with your favorites - see the criteria I use under the Why & How Info link on the right. I recently found that some folk do the opposite of what my little site does and it's worth a look and a chuckle. They find The Worst of the Web and publish links to those. This is great for a chuckle, and hopefully as an object lesson about the web. If you do something here, someone, at some time, will write about it. *smiles*. Enjoy.

Rebecca Game of "Digital Women - Women with their modems running...", is a graphic designer who is superb to say the least. Rebecca designed this "new look" web site specifically for me, and I can't praise her work enough. Her site, dedicated to women on the net, is worth seeing and bookmarking for future reference. If you are looking for links of interest to women, please visit her site. And if you need the best graphic designer on the planet, I seriously can't recommend her more highly. Oh yes, and when you visit her site, tell her Mac sent you. Thank you Rebecca. I am eternally grateful for your assistance and expertise. ;-)