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.

The small home we have here in Australia still has a garden - well now it does, seeing as my wife spent almost a year making one from pure clay and rock. In fact, she is still working on it and it's really starting to look lovely. She, I think, also reads the Australian gardening magazine and thus might find the Australian gardening magazine, online gardening resource and seed shop Global Garden free ezine for gardening an interesting addition to the magazine in printed form. If you're into gardening have a look at this site. Lots of good ideas about what to do with that dirt surrounding your place.

Have you ever gone to a rodeo or even seen one on TV? If so you may have heard some expressions that rodeo people use and that common city folk (like me) just don't, and therefore are a bit confused about. If you wish to know what all of those terms mean, hop over to the Cowboys & Cowgirls - Rodeo Chatter site and look them up. If you're feeling brave, hop on your roughout, grab that lariat, and see if you can make that doggie do a houlihan. ;-)

Being on the net means having to be more and more security conscious. Things like Spyware, Trojans, Dialers, and Keyloggers could be occupying your system without you even knowing it. Thus, something like the ewido security suite helps to guard against those and other kinds of security threats. This version is the trial version and after 14 days reverts to the free version, which is pretty good itself. Have a look. It might be just what you need to protect your system while you surf.

Many folk around the globe celebrate both Christmas and/or Hanukkah and that time of year is fast approaching. Therefore it might be an idea to visit the Homemade Christmas and Hannukkah Gifts site and see if you might be able to make, rather than buy, a gift for a loved one. They have some pretty good ideas for you to consider making as gifts.

A young internet friend recently got hit with "Identity Theft". That means that her email address was used by a scam artist and/or a spammer to send thousands of emails purporting to have come from her. They didn't, I can assure you, and that being someone who has had it done to me as well, it's not fun. However, this young woman also has a small commercial site (and yes, I know I don't usually award those) that you might wish to have a look at. She makes and sells her own jewelry, and I must say, it does look good. So, if you are looking for a gift for someone special hop over to the site named Laura Bracken Jewelry Designs Storefront and have a look. I do hope that the scum who steal others identities to use to push their garbage get nabbed and spend time looking at the outside world through, let's say, less pleasant windows.

You no doubt know that sending a large word document may be a problem simply because of its size. If you receive one, most likely you will find it's in PDF format and that you need a PDF reader to open it. Most folk use the Adobe Acrobat reader but if you want to try something smaller and just as fast if not faster, hop over to the Small, Fast, Clean, and FREE PDF Reader for Everyday Use site, download this reader and install it. It seems to work really well and you must admit, you can't beat the price. ;-)

You're working away at your desk and someone phones you. Ok, all of us have that happen, but this person goes on and on and on and you really want to get back to your work, but you also don't want to offend them by simply hanging up. So, you click on one of the lovely little sound files you found and downloaded from the When You Absolutely, Positively Have to Get Off the Phone SorryGottaGo.com site and your pc speakers play the sound of a doorbell, or a car crash, or something shattering - all of which mean you just have to go right that minute, right? This has all kinds of possibilities. Enjoy. *chuckles*

Many folk involved in education learn from others on the net about new ideas, different ways of presenting information to their charges, and simply make friends with others online. If you are involved in education you might like to browse through the Wired Campus Blog and see if you can learn something new as well. Yes, this is yet another good and useful way to use blogging. Enjoy.

I love good food and I can imagine you do as well. It is fun to try other cultures' foods to experience the difference in taste, ingredients, and textures. One particular type of food I know little about is found at the site named Hungarian cuisine. I must say it sounds interesting though and is tempting enough to try. Don't you agree?

My 4 year old grandson is now able to turn on the computer at home and put his DVDs in the correct slot and watch them if others are using the DVD or TV in the lounge. It certainly won't be long before he also navigates to the Animated coloring pages, drawings to print and paint and fun coloring books for kids site and print off some drawings to color in. If you have young ones in your family that are into drawing and coloring they may also enjoy this site.

I'm old enough to remember when Sony was a Stereo system and Television manufacturer and not much more. Now of course, that corporation also contains other divisions such as the Sony Pictures - Movies division. In fact, many of the movies that have come to be enjoyed by a world wide audience have stemmed from their studios. Have a look and see what the next blockbuster might be.

I must admit I'm a gadget freak. I love all the new things that hopefully make our lives that much easier and more pleasant. Having said that, how many of them do you use? You might find that the Mobile Magazine The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time list surprises you with its choice of the top 100. I have to admit, I hadn't thought of many on their list but on reflection I have to admit that many of them are wonderful timesaving enjoyable devices. Have a look and see what you think.

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. ;-)