I was trying to import the data from CSV file into sqlite3 database. Ideally this should be very simple task, with following the steps given in the sqlite tutorial. It is a matter of calling the sqlite command with separator argument, followed by an import operation, as listed below.

sqlite3 test.db  "create table t1 (t1key INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,data TEXT);"
sqlite3 -separator , test.db ".import some.csv t1"

Except that main attribute of my CSV file was that it could contain single records with embedded comma. I was hoping that sqlite3 would be smart enough to detect that the fields were enclosed within double quotes and then separate by comma. But I soon realized that only a code specifically dealing with CSV would know about this.  As we can see in the example above, the import is a generic code and as a user I listed comma as a separator.

My Data looked something like this :

"1","data1"
"2","data2,data3"

So like any *nix geek would do, I tried providing double quote and comma as a separator. To my surprise it worked very well. I though separator would take only single character, and I had provided two (three?). Anyway, important thing to remember is to escape the single quote with a backslash (I didn’t try it without the backslash, may be that would work too)

So here is the syntax that worked :

sqlite3 -separator \", test.db ".import mydata.csv mytbl"

Update : Turns out SQLite Manager is much better solution after all.  It is an Extension for Firefox and other apps to manage any sqlite database. Not only it took care of above situation, it also handled empty cells as well where the command line failed with following error message :

line 4: expected 3 columns of data but found 2

Data with missing cells : Notice two successive commas :

"1","data1","data2"
"2","data3,data4","data5"
"3",,"data6"

Ingredients

• todo.sh – This is a command line shell scripts which allows to manage your TO DO list
• DropBox Account : Free, Syncs various computers, Cross Platform (at least works on Windows as well as Linux)

Recipe

• Make Sure you have installed Dropbox clients on all of your machines (Mainly Work and Home)
• Download and install todo.sh in your Dropbox folder. This is main trick to make your TODO list portable.
• You need to modify the .todo file (or todo.py script itself) to set the TODO_DIR variable. I’ve created a folder called “tododir” in my Dropbox folder, and set the TODO_DIR variable as “tododir”. This helps avoiding path problems on various machines.
• (Optional) Read the tutorial available at LifeHacker
• Open command Prompt, and take charge of your TODO lists.

Why This Idea Rocks

• Since the todo list is maintained as simple text file, any machine/platform allows you to directly view and edit your todo list.
• While one would install Dropbox clients on all of their regularly used machines, You can always view and edit your todo.txt even from a cyber cafe, using Dropbox’s web interface.

Are you on Windows ?

• If you are on Windows, you will require cygwin which provides unix utilities on windows. (I was unable to get todo.sh working with mSys, which I got as part of mSys Git (More about it later, in another post))
• There is a variation of todo.sh written in Python (which is what I’m using these days). If which case, you need Python instead of Cygwin. Python version supports color coding of the items based on priority even on Windows.

Can I not just use USB Drive instead ?

• Sure you can.  But some employers do not allow the employees to connect their personal USB devices to office computers. (Security, Virus threats) in which case Dropbox is better alternative.
• Even Cyber cafe won’t allow to plug in your USB drive, but you sure can access your files from Web Front end of Dropbox.

1. Apart from the mini phone list, I also have my Plan of the Week, as another HTML on my Desktop. At the end of each week, I create the plan of next week (Friday 4-6PM). Again, it is very easy to convert any piece of text into an HTML.
2. Use a web page as Sticky Note to yourself. No Coding needed. Check this out.
3. You can put your Google Calendar on your Desktop.

Please share your ideas in the comments

I recently joined a smaller organization. Although there are over 50+ employees, I need to interact with about 5-6 people of regular basis, and another 4-5 on not so regular basis.  So although they have an Excel document containing a big list, I don’t want to refer to that document every time I need to make a call, so I created a short .html file containing the compressed extension list. Here is how you can do it too.

Create a phone list

1. Create a simple spreadsheet containing the name and extension. You can get creative and add their cell numbers as well, if you want.
2. Save this as HTML file. This option is available in OpenOffice.org (3.x) and I think even in MS Office as well
3. OR You can create your phone list as csv file, and use this script to convert it to HTML
4. If you like to have more control of how your HTML looks,  you can hand-code HTML code using simple HTML table. I used gvim to edit the file, but you can use your favorite editor.

Use it on your Desktop

1. Right Click on your Windows Desktop, Click on Properties Menu option.  You will be presented with Display Properties page
2. Click on the tab named Desktop
3. Click on Customize Desktop button located at the bottom of the tab.
4. Click on the tab named Web
5. Click on New, and point (using Browse button provided by the wizard, if needed) to the newly created HTML Page.
6. Make sure that your newly added page shows up in the list, and that the checkbox  is selected.
7. Click OK, to close the Desktop Items dialog. Also close the Display Properties dialog by clicking OK
8. Now you should see your Phone list on your Windows Desktop.

Now, whenever you need to refer to the phone list, all you need to do is press Windows+D to have a look at your desktop.

Note : I’ve tested this only on Windows XP, instructions might differ for Vista.

Then I found out a way to get this working with the Tunderbird 3 Beta

Install the Extenstion

1. Get the extension from here.
2. Download the .xpi file on your computer.
3. Go to Tools->Add-ons. Click on Install button. Point to the newly downloaded .xpi file.
4. Restart Thunderbird 3 Beta for the Add-on to be active.
5. Now you should see Lightning Nightly Updater in Add-ons list.

Configure

1. Click on Options button for this extension
2. If you actively use Google Calendar, then select second mode Also install Provided for Google Calendar
3. Leave both options under Backup as checked
4. It is good idea to click Backup Now button. If you are installing Lightning for the first time, skip this step.

This in itself doesn’t install the Lightning extension. As the name suggests, this is the extension to help you keep up to date with another extension

• Go to Help->Check for Latest Lightning update. You will now download the real Lightning extension (Two, if you have selected to download Provider for Google Calendar) 
• Download and install as usual. Restart Thunderbird for the extension to be effective.
• Now you will see two icons towards the far right of the “Tab bar”. Tooltips reveal these to be Calendar and Tasks respectively. (This puzzled me for a while, as to how do I access these functions now that I have installed the extensions)
• When you click on these icons, two new tabs will open. It is very intuitive after that.