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 us 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.

You mean you haven't started your own blog yet? Well, one place you can do that is at the Free blogging, journaling, publishing at Blog-City.com site. It has all the tools and even instructions about how to do it. Give it a try.. you might find you like it. *smiles*

We've all heard about that terrible storm in the Caribbean and lower East US coast. One of the online places where you could watch the progress of that storm (and any like ones in the area) is the Welcome to PalmBeachPost! site. Their weather site really does a good job of looking at storm hazards in that area. Just another one to bookmark for future use.

When looking on the net for interesting things for my family to try for dinner, I came across June Meyer's Authentic Hungarian Heirloom Recipe Index Page which really caught my eye. I've bookmarked it for future reference because there are some really interesting recipes here to try. See if anything looks good to you. It sure did to me. *smiles*

You'll have seen on the magazine rack in your favorite bookstore, a magazine called PC World. They also do reviews and downloads of some pretty nifty software each year, and their PCWorld.com - Best Shareware Files of 2004 site sure has some great software for you to have a look at. If it looks interesting, check it for spyware (though I seriously doubt there would be any there), then download it and install it. This is a great repository for good freeware so do have a look. Enjoy.

If you have time during your coffee break, you might like to try that old favorite word game called Dictionary.com-Hangman Game. Yes, it's the same as you used to play with pen and paper, and yes it is challenging. Great way to spend that break time.

If you have any health concerns or anyone in your family does, then hop over to the URAC.org and have a browse around. There is a lot of info here for a lot of conditions. See what you think. I think it's worth a bookmark for future use.

My grandson is about to become 3 years old on the 12th of this month. You know there will be a party with all his "mates", including Gamma and PomPom of course. Planning a birthday party for a 3 year old can be a bit daunting so I"ve bookmarked the Childrens Parties site as it looks like there are some ideas there that can be helpful. If you have a younger family member close by, it might pay you to have a look at this one for some ideas as well. Nice site.

There are times when an anagram can actually be useful. No, there are, seriously. Because of that I've found the Anagram Genius Archive site to be useful. Yes, it has a lot of fun ones but hey, I need a chuckle as well. *smiles* Enjoy.

Unfortunately not all children are fortunate in this world, and some do need a helping hand at times. One organization you might like to consider helping out in Australia is the Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia Limited Welcome site. I don't necessarily mean helping out in a monetary sense, but rather in becoming a big brother or big sister organization to a child who needs a friend. If you don't live in Australia, there is also the Big Brothers Big Sisters site international which can direct you to a site in quite a few countries that does the same thing and is affiliated with the international organization. Unfortunately as you'll see, there are still many countries that have no organization. Maybe, if you are there, you would consider starting one in your country as well. Have a look. This is one of those sites that help you, as a person who grew up with the help of others, give something back to the community in a good way. If someone helped you as an adult to keep in the game on the straight and narrow, then someone out there could use that same kind of help from you. Great organization to help in some way.

I finally have joined the digital photography age. After studying the Digital Camera Reviews site, with its over 350 digital camera reviews, and then talking with photographers in my area, I purchased a Panasonic DMC-FZ10 (4 mp, 12x optical zoom) this past week and WOW, to say we are impressed is an understatement. Now I know I'll get those grandson shots I've wanted to take. Not that I'm a doting grandfather or anything. Moi? Nahh.. of course not. *chuckles*

You are online so it is safe to assume you have installed a software firewall at least, to protect you from others entering your computer from outside the net. If you haven't, believe me, you need to. Personally I run Zone Alarm on my system and thought I'd give it a test to see how good it does its job by hopping over to the Sygate - Enterprise Security Solutions, Personal Firewall Solutions, Professional Services site and running their probe tests. Thankfully I am stealthed to the point that even they can't probe and find me. They can find the fact that I operate Windows 2000 Pro, use Internet Explorer 6.0, and what my IP number is, but that's all they can find, and that is only because my browser tells them that. Pretty good test to run on your system. Know, for sure, that you are safe online. If you aren't, then do something about it for your own protection.

Ok. I know I'm dull, and even thinking about getting old, but even I wouldn't put a page up on the Net that was billed as The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything. Ok, so why put it here for an award? You'll be amazed at how many people visit this site, and even more amazed at how many sign the guest book, knowing that maybe one in a hundred would do that (note that I don't have one?) Why not join with the rest of the world and go have a look. It is a good chuckle, I'll give it that.

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. ;-)