GPS map formats, maps, and mac OS X support

I am going to the Robotics Science and Systems Conference and want to load my Garmin GPS with a map of Europe. The open source gpsbabel program seems suitable, but the macports install (port install gpsbabel) fails with an error as follows:

configure.in:39: error: AC_SUBST: `' is not a valid shell variable name

The solution for me was to visit the source directory on my machine:

cd /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_textproc_gpsbabel/work/gpsbabel-1.3.5

and edit the file config.in
to delete the lines mentioning the (obsolete) AC_EXEEXT. Then it installed fine.

Once a suitable map has been created, the Garmin 60CSX, like other Garmin USB devices, can be directly mounted on the desktop as a mass storage device. This requires you to go into the System setup menu, in the interface section, and click on "Mass Storage Device".

It's also possible to export a set of points of interest from Google Earth as a .kml file, and then use gpsbabel to convert this to a .gpx file (which can presumably be uploaded directly using gpsbabel).

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