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.

There are new and exciting search developments to be had online almost weekly, and by various different companies and groups. For instance did you know that Yahoo now has a Yahoo! Search - Video Search capability? Just put in the subject you're looking for and this search facility will try to find a video on it for you. Caution though: You might want to make sure what the younger family members are using it to search for. Just a word to the wise...

Listening to radio stations around the world is a fun thing while you're surfing the net. All you need is one (or if you're like me, four) different sound programs and the knowledge of where to look. The reason for having all four (Windows Media Player, Boombox, Jet Audio, and Real Player) is that radio stations stream using different players. For instance the Real Radio Guide - Online Radio Directory site will show you those that use the Real Player to transmit and play their content on your system (surprise surprise). Have a look and join in the fun.

Recipes are relatively easy to find online, or at least new recipe sites are. However, once in a while you would like to find a particular recipe that you know exists, and if it has to do with BBQ or backyard cooking you most likely will find it on the Backyard " Recipes site, run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, aka ABC. Interestingly they provide a search engine of their own to find what you're looking for in their archives, always a good thing. On the same site you will also find the ABC Gold and Tweed Coasts Home site which is all about the news, weather, sports, and beauty of the area of Australia I am fortunate enough to live in. Have a look. If you enjoy warm weather, lots of white sand beaches, and all the amenities you can think of, you might want to consider vacationing here yourself. *smiles*

My oldest grandson has a love of cartoons, and I've found that the ABC Toon Center Interactive Games, Cartoons and Free Activities for Children and Kids of All Ages site is one that he enjoys. It is geared to children of all ages, so though he's only 4, he finds plenty to keep him occupied here. Take your own smaller family members to this one and see if they enjoy it. If they do, just Bookmark or Favourite it for their use in future.

Have a situation where you need to send a large file to someone, but don't want to tie up their email account by sending it as an attachment? If so you'll need to bookmark the YouSendIt The Leader in File Delivery site and try it. You simply upload your file to their server, and then email your recipient with the URL data, and they can go and download it at their leisure. Oh, and of course, it's free as well *smile*.

A frequent visitor to my site noticed that I am into digital photography in a small way. He sent me a number of links to sites to look at and I must say I'm impressed. The Welcome to PhotographyTips.com site in particular offers tips on ways to take those photographs that every photographer should know about. I found some of the tips of use myself and I'm sure you will as well. And thanks for the links by the way. Remember, if you feel you've found one that deserves a mention send it to me and I'll happily look at it. If it meets the basic criteria in the Why and How section of my site, I'll make a pick of the week from it so we can all enjoy it. Thanks, and happy photography.

I love good humour, especially when it's dry humour and/or, as those in Australia call it, "taking the Micky" out of someone or something. The site called PistolWimp - World's Greatest Magician will play for you a video of a fellow doing just that - taking the Mickey out of some of the great magicians. Have a look. I chuckled all the way through it.

If you like puzzles, especially those involving words, you're going to love the Dictionary.com-Maze site. I played with it for... well, let's say I haven't finished it yet. My advice if puzzles like this are your thing? Get a large coffee or tea and forget work for a while to really solve this one. Easy - no. Fun - Heaps. Enjoy.

One tends to only think of archaeology when some news event tells us of some world shattering significant find. However, to get to those gems an awful lot of work goes on that most of us never hear about, and some of it is quite startling and intriguing. If you've never really delved into the world of archaeologists, have a look at the Archaeology Magazine and you might just change your mind. *Walks off humming the tune to "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones"...

If you're into showing your digital photos to friends and family you might consider having a look at a relatively new (at least to me) piece of software called Gallery Your photos on your website. First of all, it is open source software to manage pictures published online, which means it is free to use (always a good sign in my book). Secondly it seems to be a very comprehensive piece of software and I may use it myself with the coming Winter/Sun festival here on the Gold Coast of Australia which always ends in a massive hotrod and custom car show. Watch this space (and try out the software yourself).

Speaking of images, did you know that a site known as Google Image Ripper v.0.1.8 even exists? It can find photos of almost any subject you can think of and then present it to you so that you can right click and "copy image" or "save image as" onto your hard drive for use in the project for the boss or on that card you want to send someone. Have a look. It could come in handy.

When writing my website each week I write it, then pass it through a spell checker for obviously misspelled words, but thankfully I also am married to one of the world's top secretaries who proofreads each and every one of them (and has my undying thanks for doing so). However, the dictionaries one usually uses may not be sufficient for your needs. Thus, the Strange & Unusual Dictionaries site might be worth bookmarking for your own use. Have a look. There certainly are some strange ones.

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. ;-)