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 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.

Personal and Site Note: Yesterday, 27June, I celebrated 64 years on this planet *bows to the audience - and works at getting back up again*. Seriously, I'm getting near that time when I will no longer be even self-employed and thus I ask for your feedback about something I have always avoided until now. Below you will find, below the section about my site designer, Rebecca Game of "Women With Their Modems Running" fame, a search box from Pico search which will search my site for anything you think I may have had here in the last couple of years. You will also find a new Google search box which will allow you to search the net from here as well. Below that it is proposed that I insert "Ads By Google". These will be text links to sites of a commercial nature, based on your search at Google. The reason is simply that if folk find it useful, and indeed click on some of the ads, I may end up making approximately A$50.00 per 6 months in revenue, which might offset the cost of keeping this site going. It will not cost you anything to click the ads, it costs the advertiser.
I would appreciate your comments on the suitability (or lack of it) of such things. In other words, would you find the fact that text ads are there, based on what you search for, offensive in any way? If so, please let me have your comments. If enough folk complain about them, I will simply not have them. If not, they will appear soon. Silence will denote acceptance of ads like this on my site, so your voice does count. Thank you for your cooperation and feedback. I look forward to hearing from you.

Have you ever started to download something from the net, maybe a large program file, and found that you were cut off in the midst of it and had to start all over again once you reconnected? Or, maybe it is simply taking too much time for things to download to you from the net at any time? Then Fresh Download, which bills itself as a "Free Download Manager, no ads, no spyware, no charges" and "The fastest accelerator tool for all kinds of downloads" may be what you have been looking for. Have a look. It could save you a lot of frustration. *smile*

Most folk enjoy apples as tasty and nutritious fruit. However the folk at the Vermont Apples site also show you delicious ways to use them in all kinds of exciting and taste tempting ways. I know that apples originating in Vermont, one of the US states, may not necessarily be available to all, but apples, themselves, hopefully are available in your part of the world. Have a look and enjoy!

If you are a frequent visitor to my site you are getting the idea by now that blogs can and are written about almost any subject you can think of. And the Kitchen Contraptions.com site, which is a blog dedicated to everything you need to make your cooking experience better, including kitchen gadgets, appliances and a whole lot more, an interesting read for any kitchen whiz. Have a look. You might find it is just the blog you've been looking for.

We are all starting to realize how small this little planet really is, when we hear of our brothers and sisters in far off places needing help that we could possibly give. For instance, organizations like AidCamps International - Volunteer Work Overseas on Development Projects might just offer you the opportunity to not only help your fellow world citizens gain a measure of health, education and welfare that they presently don't enjoy, but also might enable you to learn skills yourself as well as help others. Have a look. It might be what you're looking for and you could help others in the bargain.

Thinking about science, and space in particular, is the domain of the spaceKids.com site. What many of us thought of as science fiction just a short while ago is now a reality. This site helps younger people learn about space and how they might think of exploring it in the future. A great educational resource as well.

And, in keeping with the theme of science, the Smithsonian Spotlight on Science online exhibit is also one to see. It's amazing how the Smithsonian Museum keeps coming up with such good projects. Have a look and you'll see what I mean.

With the advent of Daniel Brown's book "The Di Vinci Code" and its exciting opening chapter, taking on such predominance in the popular reading psyche, it is almost too well timed to think that the Louvre is presently celebrating its 10th anniversary of being online. You can see the celebrations by hopping over to the Official Web site of the Musée du Louvre and having a browse around. If you can't get there in person this is the next best way.

Here in Australia, as in many countries of the world, the mobile or cell phone has taken such a great place in everyone's everyday life that the AMTA - Mind your Mobile Manners site had to be authored and published. Yes, there are mobile phone manners and you would be well advised to read them here.

If you happen to have a website of your own you will know the importance of looking at it through all of the available browsers simply because you do not know what your visitors are using, and yes, they do all display your site differently in some way. If you hop over to the Browsershots site and enter the URL of your website, it will provide you views of that site through all of the major browsers. Great resource for Web Authors.

What photo of news journalism has impressed you the most over the past year? Did you know that there is a contest annually run by photojournalists themselves that determines, to them, what the best one is? If not, head over to the NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2005 Still Photography Winners site (NPPA = National Press Photographers Association) and have a look at what they consider the best is. Amazing photographs.

Some projects of scholarly interest may be dull and boring but one certainly can't say that about the project called the OEDILF, or The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form project. It has a long way to go but is it ever going to be fun completing it. *smiles*

How far back can you remember arcade machines? Far enough back to remember those in the Under the pier show amusement arcade site? I must admit that even I can't remember that far back or remember some of these alternative coin operated machines. They look like fun though I must admit. Enjoy. *smile*

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. ;-)