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.

When was the last time you had Chinese food? I'll bet you bought it ready made right? How about trying to make it yourself? If the recipes shown on the ChinaVista's Recipe Corner site are anything to go by, it's not difficult and tasty as well. Give it a try.

Have you ever thought of creating an environment where you can watch various things grow before your eyes? The Life Science Bottle Biology site will show you how to do that, and how to add some interest to your home or office as well. That has to be an interesting project for the family to do.

If you're a frequent visitor you'll know that I think blogs are good ways for many of us to communicate our ideas, thoughts, etc. One such blog which not only does that, but may help new parents as well, is the Blogging Mommies blog. It is the original webring for moms who blog! It has blogs by parents, and as well as Mommies, blogging dads too. Mothers, Fathers, you name it, they are all here. Enjoy.

Speaking of being parents (and/or guardians) one of the ways to protect your little ones is to have good parental control software installed on your internet enabled computers. But which one to pick is the big question. The folk at Download.com have come up with reviews and downloads of what they consider the best. Have a look at the Parental Filters site, read the reviews, then download the one you think will work for your family to use.

A friend recently asked me about yet another internet scam they had received by email and then asked my advice as to what to do. After explaining what the scam really was, and warning them off it, I then suggested that they forward it on to the proper authorities for action. After major search problems, I finally was shown, and thus passed on to my friend, the Australian High Tech Crime Centresite (see Crime Reporting near the bottom of the page) and also the ACCC - Slam a cyberscam site as well (click on the "Slam a cyber scam complaint form") and the scam was dealt with. Now, for your own info please read the following and heed this advice. Never, ever, ever give your personal details, your bank account number, your passwords, or anything that could be used against you to anyone, no matter who they say they are or why they say they need that information. Friends, if it sounds too good to be true, it IS too good to be true. Common sense goes a long way here. And, do not hesitate for an instant to report any scam sent to you. These particular ones only operate in Australia, so check your own government departments for similar sites, and bookmark them for future use.

As mentioned above, I had one heck of a time finding the proper governmental agency to report these scams to. I had almost given up, when I was shown the Customer Entry - Ask Now site. It is an Australian library service for Australian Internet users and I must say, I'm really impressed. It may still be in the testing phase, but believe me, this interactive site is nothing short of fantastic, and the librarian from South Australia I spoke to online helped me find this info in a matter of minutes. Hopefully more librarians around the world will do similar services for their populations. Well done and thank you "Ask Now".

There is one organization that tries to help all of us, no matter what country we live in, what language we speak, what religion we adhere to or what race we belong to. That organization is WHO - The World Health Organization and their Internet site is one of the real gems on the net. It shows you what really is happening to our sisters and brothers around the world and gives ideas of ways we might help as well. Have a look and see what you think.

I occasionally come across some interesting downloads and/or software, and the Booby site, which describes itself as " A multithingy something - manage bookmarks, contacts, todo lists, notes, rss news and webtools online" is one of those. Have a look. It could be of use to you.

My wife and I are grandparents. Naturally we think he's the most wonderful child born in the past 2,000 years, but then we would think that. The site called Grands Place is a place for grandparents to chat and learn from each other, and also has resources that one might not readily have access to for us grandparents to use as well. Have a look and either pass it on to those you know who are grandparents, and/or visit it yourself. *smiles*

Having a grandson, and seeing the level of education (or lack of it in some areas) we all want to ensure that our grandchildren (and all children for that matter) can write as well as read the English language. If you have young ones, or, you have an interest in the language yourself, hop over to the Pocketbasics.com site and download and install their free screensaver which teaches children the parts of speech via repetitive learning. Remember, learning how to write is just as important as learning how to read, and this is one tool to help with that process. Oh, and did I mention it's free? *smiles*

In the USA there is an organization known as the National-Academies.org Office of News and Public Information. That organization consults with governmental agencies about ways to improve the life of their citizenry. At this site, you'll also learn that the four organizations that comprise the National Academies organization are the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Now that's impressive. Have a look and see what you can learn.

I know I'm getting on in years, and I know that others have a perfect right to do things I wouldn't necessarily do, and I even know that having a hobby of collecting things of one kind or another can be a safe and relaxing way of spending one's time. But, when one makes a web page out of their collection for all to see, and it happens to be Graham Barker's Navel Fluff Page you really do have to begin to wonder about what turns you on and what you feel people need to see. Think I'm kidding? Go on, you know you want to look. *chuckles and shakes his head*

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. ;-)