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.

It is heartening to note that Microsoft has joined the likes of Yahoo and AOL in the fight against spam. They have also joined in the fight against viruses on the net. If you don't have a firewall and good antivirus software regularly updated on your machine, then you really should hop over to the 836528 Microsoft site and download this little tool to remove any trace of the Mydoom and Doomjuice worm variants that might be lurking on your machine or network ready to strike. Don't delay. Do it now.

If you have a cellphone, someone, at some point or other, is going to txt message you. There is nothing at all wrong with that. Indeed, I use it myself. However, some of the txt shortcuts can be a bit daunting to understand. Enter the TXT lingo, msg lingo, chat lingo, net lingo, acronyms, & emoticons from transl8it! site to solve your problems. Just type in what the message you received on your phone says, and this site will translate it for you into human speak. *smile*. I know, I'm old, but some of it is pretty obscure.

How long has it been since you did a jigsaw puzzle? Now you can do them online at the JigZone Jigsaw Puzzles Online site. Just think. No messy pieces to lose. Now you have NO excuse to not complete a puzzle *smiles and chuckles*.

I was shown, recently, the PINAKES, A Subject Launchpad site, and it is so good as a launch pad I had to share it with you. If you are looking for a great homepage, then this information and study launch pad site is a good choice to make (beside My own page of course *smile*). Have a look and see if it is what you are looking for.

You know I love good and innovative food. And yes, soup can be an interesting addition to any meal. But even I must admit that the Soup, Strange and Vintage Cookbooks site was just a little hard to get my head around entirely. I mean, good soup is one thing, but some pretty weird Jell-O as well? See what you think.

Lots of folk try to do the right thing by reducing waste both at home and in the work place. To get a good look at what other are effectively doing, hop over to the WRAPP == Waste Reduction and Purchasing Policy site and have a read. Is this something you could implement in your own workplace? It will help the ecology of where you live.

Most artists deserve being in awe of Michelangelo. Thus, The Digital Michelangelo Project is well worth having a look at. The amount and different types of art he produced are astounding by anyone's measure, not to mention the quality of his work. Great site to spend some time at.

I recently noticed on TV that someone is making a replica of the Wright Brothers first aircraft and is planning to tour the US with it. That is commendable, as a tribute, but I wondered where the plans came from. They may well have come from The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers which are stored in the US Library of Congress. Maybe you could try to do the same thing? Now there is a project to take up your spare time. *smile*

One of the more popular media players on the net has come under suspicion in the past few years because it was apparently bundled with spyware that no one knew about. Well, the BBC apparently made a deal with them and have a version that is supposed to not have ANY spyware attached to it. Hop over to the RealOne Player download site and download and save this one. Then I would go to My Computer, Control Panel, Add/Remove programs, and remove your old version of RealOne Player, and then double click on the file you downloaded and install this one. Why take the chance? I'd say the BBC version is most likely pretty secure.

We recently had what is known as "clean up Australia day" here, and I applaud those who took part in this worthwhile project. And, the next time you come home from shopping, look at the amount of plastic bags you have with you. Then, hop over to the Reusable Bags - The Numbers…Believe It or Not site and see how many they estimate there are in the world. Enough to make you think about using them doesn't it? Enough said.

With the advent of autumn in this part of the world, the advent of cricket is upon us. If you are a cricket fan then Lord's - The Home of Cricket will be a familiar name, but you may not have seen their web site. Hop over and have a look at this fascinating game. Yes, it's long. Yes, it can, at times, be as exciting as watching ice melt, but it sure does have a following, mainly because of its strategic play. Have a look and see if you might be interested.

Hands up all Star Trek fans. Ok, if you are a real one, then you'll laugh yourself silly at the Klingon Software Quality Assurance site. Beware though, it may not be suitable for the entire family to see. However, it is a good chuckle. I can just picture Warf as a quality assurance geek talking to customers who have complaints, can't you? lol

Rebecca Game of "Digital Women - Women with their modems running...", is a graphic designer who is superb to say the least. Rebecca designed this web site specifically for me, and I can't praise her work enough. Her site, primarily 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. ;-)