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.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: On Wednesday, 23 November, 2005, we added another member to our personal family as our second grandson, Ché Tainui Johnson, was born at 9:38 Australian time. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz. (3.91kg) and was 20.77 inches (52.75cm) long at birth. Mother, Father, big brother Kaitoa, and Ché of course, are all well and all doing fine. Gamma and PomPom may take a while for their feet to touch the ground again, but they are well also. Thank you for joining us in welcoming this new arrival to our family. For those who are interested, if you click on The Baby Pictures you will see them all thus far. This will only be up for another week or so however. *Beams proudly as a new Grandpa (or PomPom in my case - Kaitoa named me that at about 4 months of age) should.*

How many times have you picked up your ringing phone, usually around dinner time, to hear some telemarketer (usually now from India) trying to sell you something? Most just slam down the phone, but someone online has come up with a much more interesting way of dealing with this annoyance and you can download it and print if off for your own use from the anti-telemarketing EGBG counterscript site. Yes, it may sound strange but hey, give it a try. You might even convince some of them to get a real job in the process. *chuckles as he wonders when telemarketing firms are going to finally get the message*

Young folk in school studying at just about any level can use help with that dreaded homework of theirs. If you know of one (or a few) you might want to take them to the CyberSleuth Kids.com Student Homework Helper site, show them around, take a moment to show them how to use it, and then bookmark it for their future use in completing those assignments. Great site for the young folk among us.

In the more northern climes it is fall, turning quickly into winter, and thus time for canning and preserving and finding exciting new ways of using local fruit to help feed themselves and their family. The US newspaper known as the Baxter Bulletin has some good recipes for using fruit (among other things) to do just that. Hop over to the Baxter Bulletin - Fruit site and you'll see what I mean. Some of it sounds pretty tasty to me.

Did you know that the web that you and I see or access is only about 1/8th of the total web? Mind you, some of it we can't only not see, we can't access it either without a login or password, and to be frank, that is fair enough. Most companies wouldn't be all that pleased to have everyone look at their balance sheets, and to be frank, I don't want folk browsing through how much I owe either *chuckles*. However, there are some resources that are available but normally not accessible because we simply don't know about them. Thus the direct search - Web Search Tools and Directories (featuring Invisible Web Resources) article and links is really something that any real researcher should have a look at and bookmark for future use. This is really a wonderful article and set of links for future use.

If you know me you know I'm a gadget freak. Yes, I know, bad habit, but I really love new and innovative things. Thus, the blog called Engadget is a real blog for gadget freaks like me.*chuckles* Have a look. You might become one yourself *smiles*

Is your "anti-virus program" old or out of date or, heaven forbid, non existent? If so have a look at the AntiVir Personal Edition Classic - More than Security site and their product. Yes, one version is for sale but their "Personal Edition Classic" version is freeware. It looks pretty good as well. Have a look and if you don't have one running at present, run, do not walk, to their site and download and install their free version at least. There is also the AVG Freeware Edition for use on your home computer. Remember, if you don't have a reliable anti-virus program on your computer it is tantamount to leaving all the doors in your home unlocked, the lights on, and a welcome mat saying you're on vacation for a month. You wouldn't do that, so don't leave your computer unguarded and exposed either. And these both work well.

Unfortunately I am a week late in showing you the Classic Dave Barry Thanksgiving hints - Herald.com 11-20-2005 article but if you know Dave Barry then you'll enjoy this one. And, maybe it will be worth saving to read next year. To those in North America (the only place on the planet that celebrates this holiday) then I hope you enjoyed your break. Turkey sandwich anyone?

It's fast becoming that time of year when those of the Christian faith celebrate Christmas by giving gifts to each other and friends and spending much more money than they should. However, one site that might help with those choices in shopping is a "beta test version" of yet another Google site called Froogle. It hopefully will also work year round so that no matter when you need a gift for someone this might be of use. At the moment if you enter what you are looking for and where you are (USA and Canada only at the moment, which is surprising seeing as the net is global), Google's shopping site will produce you a map of the area and point out stores near you that are stocking the item you are looking for. Taken to an international scale and working its way out of beta and into a full release version will be nothing short of fantastic for most shoppers. Have a look, but remember, January rolls around, with those credit card bills, all too soon. Shop carefully.

This past week a webmaster sent me an educational site that I simply must share with you now. The site, named Newton's Castle Homepage, is a site formulated by educators and is a fantastic look into Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries (gravity for instance) and, things you didn't know about him as well, for teachers and students to peruse. I think it is a fantastic effort on their part and am happy to award them a "Mac's Pick of the Week" award. Anything that helps our young folk understand the world around them gets top marks in my book. Well done. And remember, if you think you have a site, or know of a site, you feel I should see, drop me an email (see Contact Me on the right side of this page) and tell me about it. The criteria I use in picking sites is simple and can be found on the "How and Why Info Page" link on the right side of this page.

How many mp3 songs do you have on your mp3 player? I know, only old fogies like me don't have one of those yet, but no doubt it will happen one day (mine filled with small combo jazz tracks of course *smiles*). There is a wonderful blog written by three young men called Said the Gramophone and it reviews mp3 songs daily. No, you may not know all of the songs they review, but the effort is very well done indeed. Hop over and have a look.

If you are a book lover like me, you'll have a reasonably large library stored somewhere in your home of books you just can't give away or throw away. The problem is trying to find the one you need in that large collection. Thus, the LibraryThing, which categorizes 200 for free, (then it's US$10.00 per year above that number) could be very useful to you. Have a look. I think it's a great idea to help you remember just where that original print of "Stranger in a Strange Land" is. *smiles*

Now I know I spend a lot of time on the net and on my computer, and yes, I do now cut back some and go for walks whenever I can, but some folk just apparently need that lesson brought home to them in a more visual sense. For instance, have you ever heard of The Numa Numa dance? No? This site has been all around the net for ages but it definitely needs a look if you haven't seen it. I thought I needed more exercise? This guy definitely needs to get away from the keyboard, even more than I do. 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. ;-)