Mac's Picks is a collection of family friendly interesting and useful sites, updated weekly. These sites are family friendly, and cover subjects dealing with a focus on the family as a whole, search, internet, internet radio, news, health, medical resources, household hints, education, educational resources, recipes, food, strange, different, help pages, homework, kids, diy, 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 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.

Hands up anyone who knows who Norma Deloris Egstrom was? She was born in 1920 and she married Dave Barbour, the guitarist in Benny Goodman's band. Of course I'm talking about the wonderful singer, entertainer, and song writer, known as Miss Peggy Lee. The site named PeggyLee.com - The official site of Miss Peggy Lee and the one titled Peggy Lee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia give you some fascinating insights into this fabulously talented musician who sadly passed on in 2002. She is best known for "Fever" and "Is That All There Is?", which are two great songs, but also two of the very few she sang and recorded, but didn't write. She also wrote the complete score for the movie, "Lady and the Tramp" and sang it in the movie. I could go on and on about her wonderful talents as a singer, song writer, actress, and entertainer but have a look at her website. As Bogart is reputed to have said to Dave Barbour on Bogart's boat one day, " California has a lot of good chicks, but very very few great Broads. This is one of them. Take care of her." Though she is gone, the legacy is still there for us to enjoy. Miss Peggy Lee is survived by Nicki Lee Foster, her daughter with Dave Barbour. Nicki - your mom was one of the world's greatest musicians, and is sadly missed.

Many folk struggle with finances and financial understanding. It also seems, like many professions, that males tend to dominate the financial sector. Thus the Women's Institute for Financial Education site is set up to try and help all women everywhere get to grips with the financial side of life. {pssst: males can use the same education}.

If you've ever thought of starting your own blog, one of the places to learn how and to host it on is called LiveJournal.com. A blog is something you use to share your views with friends, family, and the rest of the world. This site can be used as a private journal, a blog, a social network and much more. Hop over and have a look. Give it a try. You may come to like it as I have.

Though the preponderance of Internet users still stick with Internet Explorer as their favoured browser, Mozilla's Firefox had come a long way as well. In case you didn't know it, version 2 of Firefox is now ready for download. If you would like to give it a try (for free of course) or wish to upgrade the one you have, hop over to the Firefox 2 - Rediscover the Web site, download it and install it on your system and you may well find it becomes your browser of choice.

The folk at Microsoft put out some good security software as well as their world famous office suite of programs. Indeed, if you are still running Windows 2000 as I am (why fix something that isn't broken?) you might like to hop over to the Security Essentials for Windows 2000 site and see if there are any programs you should download and install to keep your system safe. I suggest that any security measures are good to have in place.

If, like most of us, you are getting tired of all the SPAM you get in your email, maybe it's time you joined the fight against it. One way of doing that is to register at the SpamMATTERS - Registration for Spam Submission site, then any time you get spam, send it off to them to try and track down and stop. Will it make a lot of difference? Possibly not, but one never knows, and, it certainly can't hurt. Give it a try. And remember, NEVER EVER respond to spam nor purchase anything from a spam email site. NO reputable merchant uses spam to contact potential clients, and all you do is invite more spam and also run the risk of being taken for a ride in an Internet scam if you reply to any spam.

Some folk love to eat interesting and different food. That is why so many visit the Recipes, your online food and cooking resource. - Recipes Online - recipe.wenzel.net site each day. Here you can look up recipes by name, ingredients, and a bunch of other ways. Enjoy and add this one to your bookmarks so you can return regularly.

Ever wonder who controls the domains in any particular country? The IANA Root-Zone Whois Index by TLD Code site will give you that information. Have a look. It's worth the time if you need the information.

Don't you love it when you find a group of people helping others, especially online? I do, and thus the Women For Women International site deserves a look from you as well. This is a marvellous site and shows that you too can help others less fortunate than yourself to change their circumstances for a better life. Good site and worth having a look through.

The term FAQ means Frequently Asked Questions. The site called the Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education is set up to help you learn how the Internet works. Here you will find explanations on the meaning and usage of such things as your SMTP or POP3 use, how the HTTP protocol works, and many other net related items. Have a look and bookmark this one for a return visit when you need to know this info again.

Some folk find that as they progress through life, they end up needing skills they were taught in high school that they never ever thought they would use. For instance if you need to brush up on your algebra skills, this is definitely the place to start. Hop over to the Resource Algebra In Simplest Terms site and have a look. Finally even I understand some of it. Do you?

I am one of the first to admit that I have a strange sense of humour. For instance, if they are done well, I applaud some of the advertisements one sees on television, for their innovative and entertainment quality. Such is the case with the Flashbeer from Carlton Draught advertisement here in Australia. Sell much beer? Probably not, but it does get the product talked about, which is the main purpose of any advertising, plus I think it's a scream. Have a look. Maybe you will agree as well.

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. ;-)