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.

If you know anything about Australia you'll know that one of the favorite sayings attributed to this lovely land is "Throw another prawn on the barbie". Well, the difference between shrimp and prawns is apparently mainly in the size and I must say that our Australian giant prawns are some of the finest I've ever had. However, just because you may not have access to prawns as such, shrimp, though smaller, are also very tasty. Thus the Cooking Shrimp website will show you how to get the best results with them. In fact, if you look on the left side of the page on this site you will see other links showing you how to best use and cook many other seafood greats. Enjoy.

You may be aware that I'm one of those who enjoys looking at the night sky and wondering about the various things found there. Thus the Amazing Space site that, being a site that uses the Hubble Space Telescope's discoveries to inspire and educate about the wonders of our universe, caught my eye. Have a look and discover what a fantastic universe we live in.

You know that I love good food, and there is a lot to be said for making good nutritious food a simple and easy way. There is an eating place in Scottsdale Arizona, USA, that is called The Simple Chef and is run by the man himself, Eric Guerin, The Simple Chef. Have a look at his site (well, blog really) and keep up with what is happening in his part of the world.

If you have young members of your family it often helps if you encourage them by helping them in their learning process. One place that you can find a lot of help is the Awesome Library - K-12 Education Directory site. The Awesome Library organizes the Web with 28,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent in education. Now that has to be good in anyone's book. Have a look and see if it can help you educate your young folk.

You've seen digital cams, snapshot cams, web cams, and all manner of even medical cams, but have you seen Burts Kite Cam yet? You should as it's an innovative way of getting a bird's eye view of many things, like the State fair and much much more. Have a look and maybe hook up your own to a kite and see what you come up with.

One could be forgiven for never wanting to go online again with all of this Spyware lurking around every other corner of the Information Superhighway. Having said that, it's not going to keep me away and shouldn't keep you away either. Having access to the SpywareGuide.com site is a great help though because "The Spyware Guide was created to provide an all inclusive and updated resource on spyware applications, what they do and how they're used. These resources include: which software applications can detect and defeat spyware, an extensive database of all known spy software and adware applications and contact information as well as other privacy related products." If that doesn't make you feel more secure online, not much else will. *smile* Have a good look at this one and bookmark it for future use.

If you're doing a project at work or in school and you need to find some good quality photos quickly about any particular subject, you might want to give the Yotophoto Find free photos... fast! site a try. "Yotophoto is the first and only internet search engine for finding free-to-use stock photographs and images" according to their own words, and I have no doubt that they may be right. Do have a look and again, it's worth a bookmark.

The art of reading for pleasure and relaxation is slowly dying, which I think is a real shame. We live in such a "do it now" society that we tend to miss out on a lot simply because we don't take the time to read much other than the local newspaper and the occasional magazine. Thus the Wired for Books site is a real boon, as it has interviews with authors and readings by them of their own works as well. Now that has to be worth a look. Enjoy.

My wife's family can apparently be traced all the way back to the "Mad King of Bavaria". Well, mad or not he built a fantastic castle called Neuschwanstein Castle and this English home page will let you find out more about it and about its creator. To some he was the Mad King, to others an eccentric visionary. You choose.

Ever been tempted to go on a cruise? Well, how does a site called Geek Cruises - Education for geeks & consumers strike your fancy? The Eastern and Western Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera, and even Alaska, are traveled by these cruises in a luxury vessel, and they are all built around you learning how to run various computer programs such as Excel, PowerPoint, or maybe PhotoShop. Worth the trip? You decide. Remember, you can't take it with you. Enjoy learning for as long as you can.

You're driving home from a long day at work and hear a news item that sounds interesting. Then when you get home you catch part of the story on the local news. But - you know there must be more to it than that. That's when you hop over to the KnowItAllVideo.com site and see if anyone has posted a video of that event online or not. This site is populated by videos shot by people on the spot. Yes, they are amateur videos, and yes, you need to register, but it's free and may well be worth the time. Try it out and enjoy.

You undoubtedly know that David Bowie got his name from a "'Tin Machine" song but how many other show names do you know about? If you feel up to a challenge, hop over to the How did they get that name game site and take their quiz. I did and I got 6 out of 10. See if you can do better. *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. ;-)