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.

If you've caught on to the Blog scene and would like to have a look at some that may deal with specific subjects, then the BLOGWISE - Blog Directory and Weblog Research site may be what you are looking for. It not only looks at a lot of various blogs on the net, but also points you in the direction of good helpful info to create your own. Good site.

With an election year in the US, I thought it would be timely to point you towards the Center for American Women and Politics site. Yes, there are a lot of women involved in the political scene, and not just in the US, but this site shows what those involved there, who make a name for themselves, think. Isn't that the name of the game in politics? One wonders when the US will ever become liberated enough to actually have a woman president, seeing as New Zealand, India, and the UK, to name a few, have all had female leaders. Keep up the good fight. It will happen one day.

If spiritual things interest you, you may or may not be aware that the religion called The Baha'i Faith has just published all of it's sacred texts on the net at the Baha'i Reference Library site. That simply means that you can investigate it on your own, in the privacy of your own home. It also means that you don't have to buy anything or even talk with others if you don't wish to. This library has it's books in 4 different languages and that, to me, is a wonderful service for the world community at large. Have a look. It might be just what you seek. And yes, though I may be a poor example of one, I'm a Baha'i as well.

We all know about animal rescue centers and the SPCA in various parts of the world. However, recently I met someone who started a totally different type of rescue, that of older animals, in particular dogs, who have been in pounds for a very long time with no real chance of living a normal canine life. The type of enterprise I speak of can be seen at the Dog Rescue Australia site, as well as her own rescued dogs blog. Now that has to be something different. Have a look and maybe it will inspire you to help rescue a pet that needs a good home. But please, ONLY do this if you are prepared to really look after your pet.

It's winter time down under, and yes, it does get chilly in the evenings (note: chilly meaning down to 18C or 64F occasionally). Time to start looking at Crockpot Recipes and this particular site has more than 1400 recipes for the "Crock Pot" or "Slow Cooker". Doesn't that thought give you a lovely warm feeling in your tummy? Yum.

I recently found a children's site (yes, I do look for things that might help our grandson *smile*) and found an interesting one simply called Everybody! Everybody! It's fun for kids, though I must say it was slow to load on a dialup connection. However it is worth the wait and I think the younger members of your family might enjoy you taking them there as well. Have fun.

If you are an old TechTV fan, you'll know that the best show they had - Call For Help - has, in the wisdom of the new station owners, been dumped. The fellow who was always such help on this show was a man by the name of Leo LaPorte and if you ever watched the show for the things he helped folk with, all is not lost. If you hop over to Leoville you can not only keep up with what he's doing now, but even subscribe to his "seldom published but worth a read" email newsletter. He is one of the old timers (like yours truly) who has been around long enough to know a few things about the net, and computing in general. He's a great source of information and this site is definitely worth a bookmark. Have a look. You'll be glad you did.

If you're in the market for a new browser, you might like to try the new one from Mozilla called Mozilla Firefox 0.8 (Royal Oak). You can have a look here and also download it and install it on your system. It's worth doing and has some nice improvements to make your surfing more fun and more productive as well.

"Pssst. Got a minute? Have I got a deal for you." And yet another Internet scam is born. You'd be surprised how many folk fall for these scams, and I must admit they are getting more clever as time goes on. To make a long story short, there is NO Nigerian politician trying to get their money out of the country, (or any other country for that matter), nor does your bank or credit card company really need you to log into their (fake) site and enter your account details, login, and password for verification purposes. Banks and credit card companies do NOT do that under any circumstances. If a bank or credit card company needs that information they will ask for it in person at their premises. So how do you know what is a scam and what isn't? Two rules of thumb operate here. One is, if it looks too good to be true, it most likely is. The other is to check the Scamwatch site before you do anything with your personal details. There is a great amount of scam info here for everyone to read. Please, be careful and do as they say.

Looking for some fun sound files for your computer? Then hop over to the Wav Central Wav Files and Sound Files Database site, turn up your speakers, and download to your heart's content. *smiles*

If you are a frequent visitor to my site, you'll possibly remember that I showed you a link to a site at Amazon.com that will search a term you entered in all of the publications they have on hand. Well, wouldn't you know it? The folk from Google are trying out the same thing to counter the Amazon one, and you can read all about it at the About Google Print (BETA) site. Is it better than the one at Amazon? Depends on what you're looking for really, and on what books are in stock. I must say it looks good, especially as a useful tool for those doing research on a particular subject. Give it a try.

There are many strange, though interesting, sites on the net, and The Weird Site is one of them *chuckles*. It is "a classy selection of weird, strange and bizarre web sites and news facts". Ok, you be the judge. I think it's a riot but hey, what do I know? 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. ;-)