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 happen to like fast cars, and have a lot of money and wish to consider a different option to owning a new one, then hop over to the Welcome to 300 CLUB site and see what they have on offer. They will let you drive a different 'under two year old' top of the line car, every month, for a mere $2,416.00 plus GST per month. Now some would consider that to be a bargain. If you do, then this site is for you. Happy motoring.

Most of us now know that you must protect your system from spyware programs that have been deposited on our computers without your expressed permission. Don't think you have any? Hop over to the Lavasoft AdAware site and download, install, and run their software and see the results, then do a search for a program called "Spybot - Search and Destroy", and again, download, install and run it, and finally go to the www.no-adware.com site, and download their shareware software, install it and run it. Believe me, what you see will amaze and possibly scare you a little. The first two are freeware applications, but the last one will need you to register for a cost of approximately $20.00. Pretty cheap for what these three do, don't you think?

We all like good and interesting food. The Weird & Different Recipes site has, as the title of the site indicates, some pretty weird and different recipes you might like to try. Some look like fun, and even adventurous, but some? Well, lets just say, I don't think I'll go there. *smiles*

Growing up as a young person requires a lot of work. I am constantly amazed to watch the progress of my grandson as he absorbs all the things around him. However, being a young person isn't only work, it should also be fun, and the Funology -- The Science of Having Fun! site can help to understand how having fun is a necessary part of growing up and learning about the world around you as well. Interesting site for both the young and their caregivers to visit.

The sounds your computer makes are the sounds held in various folders on your hard drive, most of which are probably in the .wav format. To change some of them, click on My Computer, Control Panel, Sounds & Multimedia, and you'll see them listed there. You can make any sound file play for any particular event on your computer you wish to have sound. However the ones that come with the various versions of Windows do get boring after a while and aren't particularly imaginative. Why not hop over to The Daily .WAV site, sign up for their newsletter, and receive a new .wav file each day? You could then have your computer talk to you, play sounds for you, and really confuse the neighbors. Enjoy.

If you plan on purchasing something online, you may well find that the New Coupons and Coupon Codes site, with its coupons and coupon codes, could be instrumental in getting you a discount on your purchases. It amazes me that these are all real and all valid, but they are. Give it a try. They (the company you are about to buy from) offer them, so why not save yourself some money? Makes sense to me.

I find some blogs on the net to be strange, some to be self serving, and some to simply be downright interesting. Take for instance, the Harvard Weblogs which are Weblogs at the Harvard Law School. Now these can be interesting in that they are usually written by students and involve case studies in American law. Interesting subject if you happen to have the need or the time. Have a look.

A site brought to my attention this past week by my daughter is a site run by young people internationally who are interested in IT and in applications and projects that can help humanity worldwide. Now that got my attention, as did this small page of e-cards that you can send to friends online for free, complete with a calendar of dates on the right side of the page. This is an interesting site to take your teenage family to and is called TakingITGlobal - Expression - E-cards!. Once there, and maybe after you've sent the odd e-card or two, have a look around their site and see if your own young people might wish to become involved. This is a good prospect for all of our futures.

I know a lot of folk hit out at Microsoft because of seemingly endless lists of holes in their software that are exploited by hackers, etc, and indeed, the latest one can be read about at Microsoft's own site called Protect Against Exploit Code Related to Security Bulletin MS04-011. Having said all that (and yes, do download the patch they talk about, and keep your updates current) if you have ever wondered why their software seems to be hit more often by hackers the answer is actually very simple. They have more operating systems, and more office type programs on more computers worldwide than any other type of system or office application. Why? Because, like every other consumer product that you buy, theirs is the best and most used. Thus, when hackers look for holes, why not attack the software run on most computers? Pretty simple isn't it? The answer is not to now dump your Microsoft programs (I'm certainly not going to settle for second best - are you?) but to keep your windows and office updates firmly in place and updated at least weekly. That makes more sense to me.

Have you ever wondered about the face on Mars? How about the story that the Apollo Moon Mission is a hoax? If so hop over to Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy Home Page and you may well find out why that isn't true. Wonder about Planet X? So does the scientific community. Have a look.

Having problems with your computer and your particular version of Windows? Need technical help? Then hop over to the HelpOnThe.Net Tech Support Guy site which has free help for Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT, and more! Now that has to be a good site to bookmark.

Ever wondered how much white stuff there is in a packet of Oreo cookies? How about how many raisins in a box of Raisin Bran? The answer to these and other thought provoking problems may be found on the Cockeyed.com presents How Much Is Inside site. Then again, if you sit and think up these perplexing questions, maybe you have too much time on your hands. *chuckles*

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. ;-)