Having used the RoyalTek RGM-3800 for a week now I am very pleased with it. The biggest test to date came yesterday when I grabbed a couple new AAA batteries for it and made the fix at the apartment. I popped it in my suit jacket and headed off on a road trip down country with my friend Mary. The little unit kept a fix all the way south, whether in the car, inside buildings, in the train and the batteries lasted an even 10 hours (perfectly timed for me re-entering the apartment.

I wish the unit could sync with OSX rather than having to use Parallels to use the supplied data sync software.

It works well mind, transferring the NMEA datafiles flawlessly. The supplied iLocat scans your download folder and presents them for matching with photos. It also has a quick map feature, so that you can verify that the path you downloaded resembles the one that you thought you took. This is a great way to determine whether the unit was functional. The only feedback from the unit itself is a little LED that goes red when you are low on power. In off when the unit is off, blinks green when acquiring a fix and goes solid green when all is well. Thus you end up leaving a lot to trust.

So far the little unit lives up to this trust. Typically, when I have the NMEA file, I put it through GPSBabel under OSX, translate it into a GPX file and then view it as a path in Google Earth. The sample below is from our trip south.

The only problem I have run into thus far is an inability to erase the flash memory. I haven’t reached capacity yet (far from it actually) and right now I have configured it to start overwriting the previously stores waypoints. this may be fine. However, if you hold down the power button for three seconds, the little LED is supposed to alternate between red and green and erase the flash. I can’t seem to trigger this and although the RoyalTek support folks suggest you can erase it from the datalogger application, I have not been able to do so.

Nonetheless, a week in and having made five or six good journeys, the little unit continues to impress, on bike, in car or train or wandering of foot. Quite cool!

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My niece Meaghan gave the graduation speech this past week. It has been posted to YouTube in a fine montage by Christina. In addition to her speech making honours she picked up a total of seven awards including athlete of the year. Her uncle is very proud! Congratulations Meaghan!

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When in Montreal, one must savour the fine eating opportunities and I am thrilled to report a gem of a spot. Rumi is a Persian/Sufi restaurant located in Mile’s End at the corner of Hutchison and Fairmount. It has a charming terrasse and absolutely stunningly yummy food.

After wandering around the Laurier, St-Denis, St-Laurent, Parc area for a spell, I pushed one more block and found what I was looking for. Unfortunately, I also left my camera at the hotel and immediately wished I had brought it along. The decor has streaming fabrics and a one feels rather ensconced. I remember Vika Zafrin carefully photographing our food in Fredericton for her blog and now understand why. The presentation just begged being captured for posterity.

I started with the featured baba ghanouj. Not that I have tried a vast array of baba ghanouj (i have no idea how to pluralised that), but this was absolutely the best I have every had. It was burstingly full of flavours featuring just the right amount of lemon and paprika. Rumi also featured a hearty (seriously) Italian rosé superbly complementing both the baba ghanouj and the chicken tajine that I enjoyed as an entree. The tajine had a tomato base with black olives and marinated onions. Delicious! I finished the meal appropriately with a some Morroccan tea and a small slice of baclava.

In case you didn’t pick it up from the glowing descriptions — I am mad for this place. The delicious food, fine evening and Montréal; terrasse make Rumi a hands-down recommendation.

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Down the line of totally cool furniture comes this rather unique objet d’something. Its called Obelisk and come from Jane et cie. Its simply cool — a set of four chairs and a table that, when stored forms a rather intriguing obeliskish feature for the well turned out living room. It appears to be made out of wicker but is apparenly polyethylene on aluminum frame. Not sure that I am sold on the wicker look as I have a set of lounge chairs outside that have suffered limited weathered, but look like they have been through the wars. Nonetheless, conceptually I love this. Ingenuous and space conscious. Now, the price tag of $9,000 does seem rather steep, but when its a matter of style…

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We have seen the face of the near future with embedded displays in refrigerators and RFID tags so you can track a parcel as it speeds (hopefully) on its way. One of the companies doing some innovative work in this area is Ambient. I recalled their wonderful glowing sphere that reacted to the changes in a particular stock price, or the weather using a wireless connection internet connection. Cool, but not something that I would immediately jump at. A trial balloon they have raised lately has me a little more interested. They call it the Ambient Clock and it has a unique way of visualizing your appointments for the day, wirelessly acquired from your Goggle calendar. Cool. But its really the visualisation of this information that captures the imagination. The Ambient Clock shows booked time as solid bars stretching around the ‘face’ of the clock. It further calculates travel time based on information in the Google calendar and shows ‘prep’ or travel time as a dotted leader to the event bar. The face of the clock changes colour to indicate whether there are no pending appointments (blue) to yellow for an appointment within 10 minutes and finally to orange during an event.
Currently, Ambient is offering the clock as a Google widget and functions as though an actual physical object. They offer that if there is interest they might produce a few. This is something I could really see sticking up on the fridge or some other convenient surface.

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Here’s a hot movie tip. If you are looking for gratuitous violence and action stop reading right now. Instead, if you appreciate brilliantly composed shots, being submerged in a rich, enveloping, sensual, and splendidly conceived story, the Mistress of Spices a perfect movie, especially for Valentine’s Day. Paulette picked out this movie on the weekend and I have to admit to being absolutely engrossed for the duration.

The film features Aishwarya Rai as Tilo, an orphan who is raised within a sect dedicated to bringing the healing power of spices to mankind. It co-stars Dermott Mulroney, but don’t let that make you walk away — his presence doesn’t get int he way of a superb picture. Rai is a beautiful woman and a wonderful actress, you may remember her as Lalita in Bride and Prejudice. This film combines and Indian appreciation for movement and gesture, not unlike Kapur’s Elizabeth. In Mistress, The plot is simple, the beauty of this film lies in the staging. The spices themselves are front and centre. The shop that Tilo runs in similar to a 19thC apothecary’s shop with dark woods and elaborate nook and crannying. Popular spices are arranged in wonderful colourful and vivid pyramids on low platforms down the centre of the shop. There are countless small shelves and drawers. The spices in raw and processed form are thoughtfully presented. The movie is set beautifully. I don’t want to elabourate on the plot as I do want you to find this one and watch it.

I heartily recommend and would love to hear any comments if you happen to catch this wonderful film.

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Thanks to Usama for this one. Glasses that have interchangeable parts so you can choose a colour to match your mood or your fashion. The toulch ONE eyeglass system has a series of arms and nosepieces in a variety of colours and patterns. The website itself is pleasingly entertaining. They aren’t cheap of course, but they do offer you the opportunity to make a little change to suit your taste every couple months rather than replacing the entire frame. The initial purchase lenses are custom shaped to fit your features.

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