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.

As you are now aware, there are blogs on almost every conceivable subject. It should come as no surprise that some of the folk at Yahoo have come up with the Yahoo! Search blog, which they describe as "'a look inside the world of search from the people of Yahoo". Nothing like keeping up with the experts, so do give this blog a read.

I am always pleased to find sites that cater to keeping kids safe on the net, and I must say that the ExtremeKids.com The #1 Web Portal for Kids-Links from education to games! site goes a long way in that direction. If you have young members of your family using the net, it would be good to bookmark this site for their use.

You no doubt know that the celebration of Hanukkah starts this year on the evening of the 25th of December. If you celebrate this particular holiday you might want to hop over to the Clipart of Hannukkah Family Dinner - Search Clip Art Illustration Images site and add some clipart to that email you're about to send, or that card you are making on your own computer. Mind you, if you're younger than many of my readers you might be better served to have a look at the Kids Domain - Chanukah Clip Art site to see if it fits the bill. And, of course, that Jolly Old Fellow in the red suit isn't far away for those of the Christian faith either. Thus, if you click on the CHRISTMAS-GRAPHICS.COM - Xmas Clipart, Backgrounds, Dividers, Animated GIFs and more! site you'll also find clipart for you to use to brighten up your own cards. Oh, and so no one is wondering where he is on the evening of the 24th of December, you might want to bookmark the Welcome to the official NORAD Tracks Santa Website so that you can keep track of his journey. Enjoy.

If you are being invaded for Christmas dinner, then maybe you should have a peek at the Christmas Time Christmas Recipes site. Some yummy food to be found here, and it, for the most part, doesn't look that difficult to make either.

And while we are on the subject of cards, in particular those that can be used throughout the year as well, you might want to have a look at the Einstein eCards site, in particular if you have a budding geek living at your place or know one. They will love it. *chuckles* Enjoy.

Our young folk are growing up in an age fraught with dangers more serious than those we may have grown up with, and we all want to keep them as safe as possible. To that end you might like to have a read of the Sun Herald - 09-22-05 Kids need to know how and where to get help article, and maybe put some of their guidelines into effect with your family.

Most folk would like to see the treasures of the world, but unfortunately most of us never will get to do that. Travel, countries in strife, disease, age, lack of funds, all conspire to keep us from visiting those things that our various societies would call treasures. Thus, the site known as Treasures on Internet or very useful links, which was sent to me by the webmaster of the site, is a useful place to visit and enjoy. You may not be able to touch the objects but then again, you most likely wouldn't be able to do that if you were alongside them either. So do have a look - it's worth your time.

There are times when you purchase things, only to find out that they don't deliver on their promise of being a good product. Many folk now complain about things that are not up to standard, and the Australian site, named Not Good Enough - Australia's Customer Complaints Website Home tells it like it is, and lets you know what to be wary of. If you write them and are in Australia, they will also investigate your claim that the product was faulty. After all, fair is fair.

One thing that has always interested me is the future of transport. The Motor Show -- Australian International Motor Show -- Carsguide site at least gives you a glimpse into the world of what is planned for our motoring in the future. I fortunately attended one of these years ago in Sydney with a good friend, and I must say it was a joy I still remember going to. Interesting stuff.

If you have young ones in your family you most likely look for ways to assist them in their learning. One site that may be of help is the LearnOutLoud.com Free Audio & Video - Free Audio Books, Lectures, & Speeches on MP3 Download and Streaming Video site. And yes, it does all of those. I might just do it for my grandsons as well.

In case you hadn't heard, Microsoft is getting into the security game. Indeed, it makes sense for them to as their systems are the most used, and thus the most hacked systems there are. However, before you go into panic mode, you might want to hop over to their new site called Get a free safety scan for your computer and let it do a deep scan of your computer to kill any nasties that may be inhabiting your computer, or at least free up some disk space for you by eliminating temp files. This is a great service and yes, I did it myself and it found over 27,000 temp files in various places. Hey presto - more free space to use.

You know I like finding strange sites on the net and when I do usually put them here for you to see. Well, I think the site called demonbaby The First Annual MySpace Stupid Haircut Awards! deserves a look, even if it's only to have a chuckle. Haircuts? I shaved mine off years ago. Much easier to take care of now *smiles*. Enjoy.

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. ;-)