Updated 16 June 2008 Queensland, Australia Time
  
Hello and welcome to Mac's Picks of the Week. If you are interested in why this site exists, how it operates, and a little about Mac, then click on the Why and How Info link and see what is there. When you have finished please return to this Home page and see what sites I have chosen this week to receive a Mac's Picks of the Week award. Thank you for visiting and please share this site with friends, family, and colleagues who you feel will enjoy it.
This page is updated on a weekly basis, each Monday Australian (Queensland) time (GMT + 10 hours according to the world clock). Please come back and visit often.
Most of us have computer problems of one sort of another. A computer is just like any other piece of equipment and one day it will fail, either simply by age and use or because of some nefarious thing we run across online. Someone who might be able to help you ensure your computer runs correctly is Mark Hastings of the PC Hell Computer Hints and Tips to bring you back from the edge site. Mark certainly appears to know his stuff and I would suggest bookmarking his site to keep up with information you may well need to access at some point. Great site.
You know of audio books, and books you can download to your iPod, but how about a series of podcasts to your pc where you just turn up the speakers and listen to a book being read to you by chapters? Well, the Podiobooks.com - Serialized audio books in podcast form site does just that and it appears to have quite a collection of books available for you to listen to right now. Remember, you don't have to even own an iPod to listen to them. So turn up your speakers, join this site, and listen away in serialized form. What could be simpler?
You'll know that I have shown a few sites (more to come) of places where you can store files online so that others (colleagues or family for instance) can download them at their convenience. Were you aware that Microsoft has now joined the list as well? And they aren't even charging for it. You'll find it at the Windows Live SkyDrive site. Though they encourage you to use a hotmail address to register it, you can use virtually any valid email address to do that. I registered my own using my Gmail account and it works fine. Since there is 5GB of storage space here it's not a bad place to transfer rather large files as well. Give it a try. I'm impressed by MS yet again. (Now, if they could only make a decent operating system that works out of the box.....)
If you look for bargains online you might want to bookmark the Top Bargains - Upcoming sale items site. It shows you the product and how to get to the website selling it to reap the bargain. It also has promotional coupons for you to use to get even more discount so it may well be worth a look. Just use common sense about your shopping online and you should be fine.
Most of us, unfortunately (me included) eat much too much table salt. However, salt can also be used for other things besides just flavouring food. There is, indeed, a site called Sixty Uses For Table Salt and though I might question the validity of a few suggestions here, there are some that I know actually do work as well (killing weeds is one I personally know works). Have a look. It's a lot cheaper and less dangerous than a lot of other products you might consider buying to do the same things.
You'll know that there is the odd dictionary online that you can download and install on your system for use with other programs you may have, but what about a thesaurus as well? Hop over to the Mobysaurus Freeware Thesaurus to download site and give it a try. It's free to download and use so you can't beat the price. Happy word-smithing.
All of us use search facilities to find things on the net, but what if you had all of the sites and things you need just set out on a website for you? That's basically the premise of the All My Faves Why Search site. Hop over and see what I mean. If you bookmark this one (or make it your home page) a lot of things will immediately become available for your use. Interesting idea, that's for sure. Try it out and see what you feel.
Everyone (and yes, diabetic peripheral neuropathy or not I include myself in that statement) needs to keep some form of physical activity in their life. If we don't, the old phrase "use it or lose it" starts to make even more sense. The US government went through a whole process of trying to educate its populous to take activity as a daily routine (as have some other countries) and their site called Be Physically Active Each Day goes quite a long way to giving good advice not only why, but how to do that. Have a look and push yourself away from that computer and out of the easy chair for a while and stay, or get, healthy.
If you're cramming for an exam, or needing to burn the midnight oil so to speak to study for some reason, you need to stay alert and be able to absorb what you're studying. Thus, a site like the Eat to Boost Mental Alertness site can help you to achieve more with all that study time. Have a look. It could help you.
if you're one of the younger members of your household you know that besides homework, you also need a little fun and relaxation as well. That's why there are sites like the one named Enter the Wild World of WONKA at WONKA.com which can be a lot of fun to browse around and play on. Why not bookmark this site for the odd 10 minute work break while studying? It might help you ultimately get more done.
There are more and more people starting their own business from home, and thankfully more and more of those are women. The site called Home-based businesses, business opportunities and resources at Women's Work is a great site filled with encouragement and ideas to help you out. The site is also known as "women's work or women who mean business" which makes perfect sense to me. Remember, women's work is anything YOU want it to be. Go get 'em.
Want to make that next PowerPoint presentation stand out a little, or your recent slide show or film effort bring the visual to your audience's attention more forcefully? Then hop over to the soundsnap.com Find and Share Free Sound Effects and Loops site and download a few to make a point when inserted in the right place in that presentation. Have fun.
 Rebecca Game of "Digital Women - Women with their modems
running...", is my web designer and a graphic designer who is superb to say the least. 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. ;-)
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