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 will be aware that there are various aid agencies around the planet who try their best to help those in need. One such agency is the Christian Children's Fund CCF International. Now you could be forgiven for wondering if they only help those who believe as they do. Their statement, however, says "Christian Children's Fund provides help to needy children regardless of race, gender or religion." It also says "CCF provides educational opportunities, nutritional assistance, health benefits, access to safe water and waste disposal, as well as other essential services. We strengthen families by helping parents become self-sufficient and enabling communities to build for the future." As long as they do that, then I feel they could use your support. Have a look, and be thankful it isn't your child in one of the pictures there.

You'll know that I'm keen on everyone trying blogging. Would you believe that even the news media are doing it now? Hop over to the Guardian Unlimited Weblog and have a look. When an idea catches on, everyone seems to hop on board. Have you yet? What are you waiting for?

A short while ago I had a site dealing with the phenomenal women of the web as a Pick of the Week. Wouldn't you know it? There is also a Phenomenal Men Of The Web site for you to see as well. *smiles* Enjoy.

Have you noticed how many Indian Cuisine restaurants there are around now? I would say it is because this tasty aromatic cooking is taking everyone's taste buds by storm. If you would like to recreate some of these lovely dishes in your own home, hop over to the Indian Recipes site and have a browse around. As Nigela Lawson says *though I'm of another opinion* "Some like it hot. I like it very hot". *chuckles*

There are many in history that have proven to the world that science is for the advancement of us all. However, all too often when one thinks of scientific advancement, male scientists pop into mind. The 4000 Years of Women in Science site points out that a very large number of the things we look on as advancement, were indeed discovered by women. I feel, as opposed to those who wrote the history books I grew up with, that it's about time we recognized those who made a difference, male or female, don't you?

One of the oldest and most consistently reliable news sources is the Reuters News Service. They now not only gather news as we tend to think of it, but financial information as well. If you hop over to the Latest News and Financial Information Reuters.com site and have a browse around you might just find that you want to bookmark (or favorite) this site for future reference. I did.

My grandson (about to turn 3 in a short while) loves crocodiles. He has seen some at wildlife parks here in Australia and just thinks they are the coolest animals around (well, those and lions) *chuckle*. I know he'll be impressed when I show him the NOVA Secrets of the Crocodile Caves PBS site. After all, he and "PomPom" both enjoy animal sites. Why not take your little ones there as well? And note again? Take, don't send them there.

If you need some medical advice, your doctor is the logical choice. However, there are also times when you simply need an opinion or an explanation of a condition or disease. Might I recommend that the WebMD -- Trustworthy, Credible, and Timely Health Information site is made to fill just such a gap? I would also suggest bookmarking it so that you can return whenever you have a question. Good site.

Often we will look for tips and tricks that make software and our computers work better and more efficiently. Who then better to actually give us some tips than those who wrote the software to begin with? The folk at Microsoft (the techos, not Mr. Gates himself) have written 50 Tips and Tricks - from Microsoft for using their software. And guess what? It's free as well. Now that has to be worth a look.

My wife and I are presently in the market for a new(ish) car. My wonderful son-in-law pointed us in the direction of the Chevrolet Australia site. Not only is it a look at their cars out here (called Holden in this part of the world) but they have some good tips for maintaining any auto as well. That's a real help to the net community. Thank you for the tip Jigger.
*Addendum* On Sunday the 8th of August we purchased a Holden Commodore Executive, less than 9 months old, V6 3.8ltr engine, 38,000km, air con., power sterring, abs brakes, automatic, quad stereo cd/radio/tape player for $22 K. I think we did well and I'll be looking at this site to help us maintain it in top condition.

I love it when good software writers put out software that is helpful to the net community and then do it for free as well. The folk at the Major Geeks site (don't you just love that name? lol) have initiated the MG Free Download - SpyBot-Search & Destroy 1.3 Final site so that you can get the final version of their wonderful software. Don't know what SpyBot - Search and Destroy is? Then wow, do you need it !! Run, don't walk to this site and download, install, and run this software as soon as you can. You'll be amazed at how many nasties you have riding hidden in your computer, and this software will find most of them and kill them for you. Seriously, do this yesterday. *chuckles*

As you can imagine I spend a fair amount of time each week searching for sites that I think deserve a mention on my site. I find some that do, many that don't and some that - well - let's just say that some folk really need to get out more. One such site, being the result of someone I can only surmise falls into that category of needing to get out more, is the DancingPaul.com I can dance if I want to! site. Go ahead. Go there. See if you can make any sense out of it? And if you can? Um, move away from the keyboard and monitor now, quickly. *smiles*

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. ;-)