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.

Many folk have ditched Internet Explorer and migrated to Firefox as their browser of preference. Normally this change is because a) Firefox has a few things (like tabbed browsing) that I.E. doesn't have (yet...) or b) because of security scares and the belief that Firefox is a better alternative because it doesn't have security problems. If you've made the switch for a) above, all well and good, though the next version of IE will most likely have tabbed browsing added as well. If it's for the b) reason above, think again, because the Firefox 8 New Vulnerabilities site shows it's not without its own problems. Let's face it - the more popular any program becomes the more hackers are going to try and find ways through it to your data or equipment. The lesson in all of this? Simple really - ensure that you constantly download any improvements or updates for WHATEVER browser you use. All of them are flawed in some way but if you keep yourself and your programs up to date, then the problems shouldn't affect you as badly. Stay safe.

You'll no doubt know that various search engines are improving all the time. Google seems to have an unending list of new addins or programs coming out of its development labs. Netscape is considering expanding its search capabilities to include blogs, and the list goes on and on. However one improvement that you may not have seen yet is the Windows Live search facility. It's still in beta testing but it's worth a look even now. It will go far beyond MSN search from the look of it, and it will be a decent competitor to the likes of Yahoo and Google when it's done. At the moment there are annoyances such as hitting the back button from a site found only to find you have to start the scroll all over again each time, but I live in hope that will be addressed before the final model is released. Having said that, have a look now. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Cooking, for many, is not so much not knowing how to cook but rather being unable to think of what to cook. If, like me, that's the problem you face, then the site called CookingByNumbers.com may just go a long way to solving that problem for you. Just tell it what's in your fridge and what's in your cupboard and it will find recipes for you to use those ingredients in. How much more simple can it get? Is that dinner I hear bubbling away?

Keeping track of things about the net and about blogging in general can be a time consuming task. Thus the Blog News Channel site was born. Browse through this one and you'll find that this is a great resource of news about all manner of things, especially in our digital world, not just blogging. Enjoy.

If you're a frequent visitor you'll know that I applaud the efforts of normal people on the street in setting up their own website, and when someone in the younger age bracket does it I get even more excited about their efforts. For instance, take the younger members of your household over to Katrina's Home Page and you'll find a reasonably well laid out site by a young woman, with links to things of interest to those in her age bracket. Isn't that what the net is all about, sharing ideas and information? I think so and thus I awarded Katrina a Pick of the Week citation for her efforts. If you're in the younger generation you might like to have a look and see what she's done. I think she's done well.

As you no doubt know, there are lots of sites with programs and files you can download to make your system run more securely, more efficiently, and more fun. The 100-downloads.com site is one of those. It contains their rating of the top-100 essential downloads of free software and freeware for Windows XP. If you're running XP then you should have a look. It's a good source of info on many products.

If you've ever been outside at night and seen a comet streak across your sky, you'll know how exciting it can be to see one as it bounces off or burns up in our dense atmosphere. However how much do you really know about these pieces of space remnant that collide with us on reasonably regular intervals, or that simply skate on by? The Comets site, run by NASA in the U.S.A. is a good resource on comets and their sightings. Have a look and you might see yet another one pass by you.

If your family (or you) have decided to open up your own website, you might like to visit the site which says FamilyLobby.com provides free family websites and website hosting. Now that's a rather long title for a site but it does tell what they do. Hop over and have a look. And don't forget to let me know when your site is operational as long as it fits the criteria I use (see the "Why and How Info" site on the right side of this page).

We all know the 7 wonders of the world, but did you know there are many more that should be considered as wonders as well? There are, and the Hillman Wonders of the World shows most of them. This is an interesting link site to many of the wonders in our world. Have a look and browse around. Interesting stuff.

When traveling to different far off lands, or even when writing to them one thing that you should know is their greeting. And no, it's not always Mr., Mrs., or Ms. In fact if you have a look at the International Addresses and Salutations site you'll know what to begin your greeting with next time the situation presents itself. This is a good one for a bookmark in my book.

If you have friends who use the Macintosh type of computer you'll know that Apple uses things on their desktop called Widgets. These are normally little application programs that show you, on your desktop, things like the weather or traffic cameras or many other useful things for you to see or hear. But did you know that you can now have widgets on your PC desktop as well? You can, if you go to the Yahoo! Widgets - Get Weather, Photos, Calendar, and More on Your Mac or Windows Desktop site and download and install their engine, which comes with a few good widgets itself, and then hop over to the Konfabulator - Gallery site where you'll find hundreds more. They even show you how to make a new one and share it with the rest of us in the Internet community. Have a look. I've now got my desktop showing me the weather, traffic, and a few other neat things. You can have them too, and they are all free by the way. Enjoy.

If you followed the Oscar presentations recently you'll know that the film called "BrokeBack Mountain" got a lot of awards and again has, in a very different context, put cowboys back on the average family's discussion list. All well and good, but have you seen the YouTube - Skating Cowboys video? If you haven't, hop over and have a look. Turn up your speakers though as the music is an integral part of this video. Ladies, you're gonna love this one *chuckles*. Enjoy.

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. ;-)