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 Monday 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.

New Things

Two things have recently happened that you may well be unaware of. They are as follows:

1. If you look near the bottom of this page you will see a poll dealing with the categories of sites you might like to see more of. I don't collect personal data from you at any time, but ask that you take a moment and let me know by clicking on your favourite category, what category site you would like to see more of. If the category is not listed, then please email me with that information (see right side of this page for the "Contact Me" link) and I will try to add that as well. You have, by your regular weekly visit to my family friendly category site, made this site into one that receives over 500 people per day at times, so why not have your input into what I award as well? Please also read the "Why How Info" link on the right side of this page also to see the criteria I use. Thank you in advance for your help.

2. I recently attended what is known as the Winter Sun Festival held here on the Gold Coast of Australia and on this link you will see some of the photos I took of the restored and/or modified cars that attend that annual event. The festival is really built about 1950s - 1960s Rock and Roll, and includes dancing and music from that era which goes on all week long, ending with this fantastic display of motor vehicles that accompanies the festival. This must be the largest display of hotrods and/or restored vehicles in Australia so if you like interesting vehicles, have a look. Likewise, if you had a car there and/or know someone who did, let them know that photos of their car may well be on this site too. Enjoy.

When one publishes a page weekly for a number of years, you often wonder if anyone else is doing much the same thing. I am happy to report that not only is someone publishing a site that shows good, interesting and at times, thought provoking sites, but though it is relatively new, it does a fine job of reviewing them as well. I speak of the Welcome to Sitereviewer.net site which I thoroughly recommend you visit and add to your bookmarks. Adam does a fine job and certainly deserves an award from me and a visit from you. Enjoy.

Speaking of searching for things, were you aware that Google Image Search isn't the only search facility that has a specified image or video search capability? The AltaVista - Video Search site does it as well and does it very competently. If you don't find the visual you seek on Google Image Search you may well find it at AltaVista. I'd bookmark both of them for future use.

I love good food, and applaud the fact that all of our tastes are indeed different. One particular type of food that I personally dislike, but I am in the minority on, can be found at the INDOlink - Indian Recipes site. Suffice it to say I spent a lot of time in that part of the world at one point, and unfortunately found that most of the food didn't agree with me. Hopefully you are not so afflicted and will enjoy this site. It looks delicious. Give it a try.

Ever wonder what is happening over at Google? We seem to hear about that particular search facility in new reports, magazines, stock reports, etc. etc. To find out the real scoop at this massive facility you might want to keep tabs on the Official Google Blog as the people writing to it certainly seem to be informed. And, since they share that information with us for free, you should be informed as well. Enjoy.

We are approaching that time in my grandsons' lives when the familiar cry of "Daddie/Mommie - can I have a pet?" will soon ring out. I am not discouraging having a pet at all. Many are loyal good friends and become another loving member of the family so to speak. However, the care of a pet doesn't involve an afternoon play followed by a lifetime of neglect. To learn that principle I plan on bookmarking and keeping handy the Welcome to Neopets! site. Here, you register for free, and then adopt an "online pet" which is fun and informative. The theory is, if you can care for your online pet (feed it, water it, play with it, ensure its safety, ensure its continued good health) then you probably can for a real life one as well. But, should the reverse be true, well, you get the picture. Handy site? I think so. *smiles*

If you've taken the time to visit the photos I placed on Flickr for you all to see then you will realise that I not only own a good digital camera, I enjoy using it. If you've considered getting into the Digital Camera revolution you might wish to peruse the Digital Camera Reviews from the Digital Camera Resource Page site before you lay down your hard earned cash for one. Yes, I paid a little more than normal for the one I have but I also knew precisely what I wanted, and waited until I could afford it. The photos I take seem to bear that theory out. Thus, a good read and study of this site should stand you in good stead.

"When you wish upon a star ...". I'll bet almost everyone knows that as the theme song to the many Walt Disney productions. Did you know that the man himself created a time capsule and tried to predict the future? He not only did but if you go to the Boing Boing Walt Disney's 1956 time-capsule letter to the future site you can have a read of what he said. No, he wasn't 100% correct, but then again, if you consider when he wrote it, he wasn't all that far off either. Interesting site to see.

Are you using Firefox as your preferred Internet Browser instead of Internet Explorer? If so you may want to have it do things like.... well, we could fill the page with ideas couldn't we? If you hop over to the I want a Firefox Extension to ... site you will find 200 Plus common problems solved in Firefox as well as hints and tips to make it really stand on its head. Provided by the folk at eConsultant.com you'll find it a very useful site to read and to bookmark. You can then come back to it again for new things they find as well. Enjoy.

One of the things I've always loved, and been known for, is telling jokes. Unfortunately comedy, like many things, has taken what I feel is a downward trend over the past 20 years and now much of it is really not fit for normal consumption. And no, anyone who knows me knows I'm far from a prude. However the MyHumor.org site is a real find. It bills itself as the site that "provides daily funny, clean jokes, setting the standard for entertaining, great clean humor! Clean Humor at its Best". Well, I must agree with that and think this site is worth an award for swimming against the tide, yet doing us all a service in the same breath. Have a look. It's worth a chuckle or two.

I'm one of these nerds who loves to be kept informed, not only of different points of view, but new things on the web around me. The popurls.com site is composed of a customizable site with links to popular URLs to the latest web buzz. If you feel the need to be kept up to date with web news, this is the place to do it from. It makes a reasonable home page as well though not being a nerd, my beloved wife and I disagree on that point. Have a look and be informed.

You are no doubt aware that the Internet Public Library hosts what is most likely one of the largest repositories of information online, much like a real world library does, with the exception that you can use it from your home PC 24 hours a day. However, it's not alone in this field of endeavour. Indeed, the Questia - The Online Library of Books and Journals site is also very worth a bookmark to return to when you need information on almost any subject. Have a look and bookmark both of them for future use. The younger members of your household may also find them useful for those dreaded homework assignments. Enjoy.

How inventive are you normally? Some folk are by dint of necessity, some by the simple joy of creating something new or something from a different perspective. I take it that the latter of those was the reason for the production of MooTube. And what is that I hear you ask? Well, you simply put a camera on a cow, turn it on, and you produce MooTube. Looks like a nice piece of grass over there don't you think? Have a look. Maybe you can find another use for it. It escapes me.

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. ;-)