Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with import

Import motorcycle from US to UK?

nickrussell — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:41:02 -0800

A friend may be moving to the UK for a year this summer. He's wondering how he would go about bringing his beloved Ducati with him? It's fully compliant in the US and is less than 10 years old. We're specifically wondering about navigating the legal regulations in the UK, although any thoughts on 1) shipping, and 2) his requirements for a motorcycle driving licensing are helpful as well.

Thank you hivemind!

How do I import my Magento database? (memory errors)

Unhyper — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 01:16:57 -0800

I am trying to import a Magento database in phpMyAdmin but keep getting an exhausted memory error. I am in MySQL hell.

I had a Magento CE 1.5 installation, and I am now trying to use my webhost's automated system to install Magento CE 1.7, and then replace the newly created database's contents with the SQL backup file made of the 1.5 database.

I tried to just import the old sql base files into the new database, but apparently phpMyAdmin can't just "replace" existing data with new data, so I wiped all the tables and am trying to use Import to bring in the gzipped backup.

However, I keep getting this error:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 214237 bytes) in /usr/local/cpanel/base/3rdparty/phpMyAdmin/libraries/import/csv.php on line 356

I don't have access to the file the error message quotes.

This is from my attempt at importing in CSV, the same happens if I try the SQL format version.

The database unzipped is 300 MB, and its gzipped version is 40 MB.

The tools at my disposal are FTP and phpMyAdmin. I don't know if have SSH access, and I'd be all thumbs with it if I did because I have never used it. Is this an out of memory type situation due to such a large database? What can I do?

Vegan Cream Cheese Doesn't Start Out Expired

tigerjade — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 05:48:04 -0800

Adding recipes from a digital cookbook to a digital recipe universe: how to? (iOS 10 filter) (Previously)

I have most of the recipes I want to try in Kindle cookbooks, but keeping track of them while juggling the usual responsibilities of mom + full-time geek + wife + pet herder is proving beyond my capabilities. I'm a visual organizer, so having everything available in one place will allow me to plan and cook meals more efficiently.

Thing is, all the software I've tried so far (well, I tried Sous Chef) can't import recipes from Kindle books. MacGourmet doesn't appear to be able to do it either, judging from their FAQs and support fora. They'll import from text, but the text that ends up in their importer doesn't work like a text editor; when you select a block of text, it looks like the importer thinks the text on the screen is an image so you are scraping text from an image rather than selecting lines that wrap.

Where can I find Mac software that can import from Kindle books? Anyone have any luck doing this? I don't mind paying $50 for MacGourmet if someone here in the Hive Mind can vouch for it working properly. (I trust y'all infinitely more than some website dedicated to sales.)

Holy C**P, a 65 Marlin!

Mitheral — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:20:56 -0800

Have you imported a 16+ year old vehicle from the US to Canada (BC)? What was the experience like and roughly how much did it end up costing? I'm considering flying down to Arizona; buying a vehicle; and then driving it home for either use or resale. I'd be buying something older than the 15 year cut off for exemption from meeting MVSS standards.

It looks like I should be able to:

Buy road worthy car after confirming clean clear title
Email the US border crossing I intend to cross into Canada making sure to attach a copy of the title.
Drive to the US Border crossing arriving no sooner than 72 hours after email.
Have the US Border agents stamp the title.
Proceed to Canadian border crossing where I'll present the stamped title, bill of sale, and a certificate of insurance.
Fill out Form 1 and pay fee (How much?)
Pay GST, BC PST, and RIV Fee.
Wait for form 2 to arive and then take that to RIV inspection centre.
Have BC Safety inspection performed
Take forms 1, 2, and safety inspection to ICBC. Pay registeration and licencing fees. Drive Car.

Is there a big gotcha lurking to cost me thousands of dollars and days of time?

Bonus Question: Where do I get a certificate of insurance for a car that hasn't been safety inspected in BC? Is it just a regular multi day permit? Or is it something I can buy in Arizona?

Extracting/Importing iPhone SMS/MMS Data

Sine_Agraphia — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:20:22 -0800

So, I want to restore my iPhone to a backup that's about 1 month old. However, I don't want to lose all of the SMS/MMS and Contacts data that I've accumulated in the meantime. Is it possible to extract and import this newer data into my older backup? I've searched around previous, similar MeFi questions and various 3rd party software, but no dice. And, sadly, jailbreaking is not an option. Potentially relevant details:

-I'm using an iPhone 4S. The backup in question was made from the very same iPhone 4S.

-I'm currently using OS 5.1.1

-Backup is either 5.1.1 or 5.0

-I'm good looking, sensitive, smart and enjoy long walks on the beach.

Thank you for any help!

Can I control a FireWire camcorder via USB?

gazole — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 13:17:38 -0800

I need a firewire to USB converter to import some old and precious MiniDV video to a MacBook Air using the camcorder. Does such a thing really exist? My only computing option is a laptop so a simple FireWire card won't help me, and the old PowerBook G4 I had with a FW port has left this mortal coil.

I searched Amazon and it seemed like all the converters/adapters I could find had overwhelming 1-star reviews saying they didn't work.

Is there such a thing as a simple converter that works and would allow me to use my ~9 year old Sony MiniDV camcorder to import my video?

iTunes, do your job!

altopower — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:30:12 -0800

iTunes won't import songs? Well, that's about it. iTunes (not sure on version, but it's almost certainly fully-updated) won't import songs that have been downloaded. It did for a while, and now it won't. No error message, just nothing happens. What's going on?

Importing Old Home Movies

thanotopsis — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:23:37 -0800

I need a cheap and easy way to get RCA-interface or S-Video interface video onto my desktop. I've seen a few devices that are sub-10.00 (which would happily be my price range, if possible) but reviews are wide ranging between "this is great!" and "this is a piece of crap!" I've found various listings for the EasyCAP device, which is essentially a converter plus some software. But, as you can see by the reviews, there are a lot of stories going around on if this thing even works at all.

My video sources are various VHS tapes and Video8 tapes (from an old non-functioning camcorder). For the record, my target importing desktop runs Windows 7 64.

Are there any functioning devices out there that would be suitable for my environment at a similar price point? I'd even be willing to look up to 20.00 for such a device, but pricing it out any more than that, and I could just as easily pay a camera shop to take care of it for me.

There's no way out of this, I will need the help of a soft machine to do my rote dirty work.

oceanjesse — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:41:39 -0800

Matlab textparsing filter: So for a project, I am working with over one hundred years of hourly data collected for water levels. I have all of this collected in a giant, ~35 Mb text file. Toward the last decade or so, there are double entries for water level thanks to semidiurnal tide measurement upgrades, and so there is an irregular number of columns that isn't easy to work with the usual data import strategies. I need your help, citizens of Metafilter, so that I can successfully rig the Matlab textscan command (or something else) to read in this formatted data, and make accommodations for empty value strings! More inside. So, I have a bunch of lines that look like this

8656483 19000101 00:00   0.329

8656483 19000101 01:00   0.217

But then, around line 841400 or so, I have something like this:

8656483 19970904 11:00   0.622   -.603

8656483 19970904 12:00   0.241   705

I'm looking to form a matrix that looks like this below, but I can't seem to get there with the command that I'm using.



[8656483, 19000101, 00,  0.329,  0; 

8656483, 19000101, 01, 0.217, 0;



...



8656483, 19970101, 11, 0.622, -.603;

8656483, 19970101, 12, 0.241, 705;]

Here is the command workflow that I'm trying to use, but to no avail:



>> fid = fopen('~/Desktop/values.txt');

>> C = textscan(fid,'%f %f %2f %f %f', 'delimiter', '', 'EmptyValue', 0);

>> fclose(fid);

When I open the variable C though, I end up with these as contents:



    [8656483]    [19000101]    [0]    [0x1 double]    [0x1 double]

Is anybody a guru with the textscan command, and can tell me where I've gone astray? Also, if you have a better suggestion, that would also be great. I've tried the data import tool with excel, and I've also tried the import data option in the matlab gui, which scoffed at my file and didn't even load.

For what it's worth, I'm running Matlab R2012a on OS X Lion.

can't get tasker profiles to import

Lucinda — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:48:54 -0800

I can't import any profiles in Tasker. Help! (I am running Tasker version 1.2.1u1. I have a T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide running Froyo.)

I found a profile I would like to use - (http://tasker.wikidot.com/local--files/nightsmsresponder/NightSMSResponder.prf.xml). I download the file (by using "Save Link As", otherwise it takes me to a web page with what looks like code) and it goes into my ./sdcard/download directory. I move it (using AndroZip) to ./sdcard/Tasker/profiles directory.

I open Tasker, go to "import profile", go to /sdcard/Tasker/profiles, and NightSMSResponder.prf.xml is not there. It does not show me anything to be imported.

I have double- and triple- checked the paths (because I have a "Downloads" and a "download" path and can't find them. I created a folder called "Test" in the Tasker directory, and put the .xml file in there. In Tasker, I see the "Test" folder but nothing is in it.

I've had this problem with other .xml files on this site, so it's not a one-off fluke.

importing a small item from the USA

Busy Old Fool — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:18:48 -0800

I want to buy a $12 item of clothing from the USA and have it delivered to the UK. Can I do this without spending $30+ on shipping? Also, are the Carhartt Leather Fencer Gloves (or something as good) available in the UK? (Asking for a friend.) I'm looking for a pair of medium Carhartt Leather Fencer Gloves for delivery in the UK.

As far as I can see, no UK retailers stock them. If you can find one, then that would be a great answer! Or if you know of similar work gloves which are as good as the Carhartts and are available in the UK, please answer!

Assuming they (or an equivalent) are not available in the UK, I need to buy them from the USA. The problem is that all the retailers and importers I've looked at have minimum shipping rates which are many times the $12 value of the gloves. (I think some of them are factoring in admin charges for dealing with import duty, which isn't payable on such a cheap item.) Do you know of someone who will send me the gloves for a reasonable price?

Here are a few places I've tried - and failed - to source them - this might save you some time if you're using similar search terms to mine:

DungareesOnline - the gloves are out of stock and they aren't planning to reorder them. (I checked)
BareBones WorkWear on Amazon.com - shipping to the UK is three times the price of the gloves
Nyack General Store - don't have them in medium
G&L Clothing - shipping to the UK is four times the price of the gloves
Carhartt USA website - ony accepts billing addresses in the USA or Canada
Sears - gloves not available for international shipping
MyAmericanShopper, NYBox, Borderlink, Reship.com, USAmail1 - all have fairly expensive minimum shipping charges to the UK - the cheapest so far is Skybox

Columba Cream in Canada?

WinnipegDragon — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:07:29 -0800

Please help me find some Columba Cream! Difficulty: Canadian. My wife and I were married in Scotland ten years ago, and while we were there, we fell in love with Columba Cream which is essentially Bailey's raised to the power of awesome.

I would really, really like to get some since even ten years later we are talking about how much we enjoyed it. However, Canada does not allow an individual to just mail-order a case of hooch from overseas, and even a private retailer can't bring it in unless it is listed by the provincial liquor control boards, which it is not. One retailer *will* ship it but they basically say that it may be seized and if it is, you are out the cash.

So, how can I get my hands on the stuff? Is it available in the States? Google has failed me, and I'm not sure what else to try.

How to avoid import taxes on a parcel from the US to the UK.

rinsemedown — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:38:57 -0800

How to avoid import taxes on a parcel from the US to the UK. I'm about to order $1000 worth of custom embroidered hats from the US to be delivered to here in the UK. I'd like to try and avoided paying a crazy amount of import tax if possible. What needs to be on the box to make this happen? I've heard promotional items don't get taxed (the hats are promotional items), obviously there is the whole "gift" thing, however I don't think that works for high value items. I'm sure I read you can be charged tax on anything over £14.

My friend recently got stung £180 for 300 vinyl records from the US via parcelforce, ontop of paying $750 for them to be shipped anyway, expensive business!

Need advice on how to buy and ship a Japan-only bicycle to the US.

soulbarn — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:44:39 -0800

I want to buy my wife this "Mamachari" bike for her birthday. But they are only available in Japan (I'm in the US.) Any suggestions on how I'd purchase and ship one at the lowest price possible?

I want chocolates from a specific shop in Paris delivered to the US: please help me figure out how to do it.

Susan PG — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:30:14 -0800

I want to order from a chocolate shop in Paris, Jacques Genin, and have it shipped to the United States. But, Jacques Genin doesn't seem to even have a website, let alone online ordering. Is there a service I can use to buy and ship the products for me? It's probably possible that I could buy the products over the phone and ask to have them packed, and then have FedEx or someone pick up and ship them. But I am worried that won't work. The people at Jacques Genin don't speak much English and my French is even worse, so I worry about miscommunications and botching (and irritation and spoilage).

Really, what I am hoping is that there's an international service --maybe crowd-sourced, maybe involving bidding-- that connects people who are willing to do small tasks for a fee, with people who need to get something done. Sort of a Mechanical Turk meets Airbnb type thing.

But I am not fixed on that kind of solution. I'll be happy with any service that will pick up, pack and ship. Ideally I would deal only with one party, but I'd be okay to deal separately with JG and the shipper if I had to.

(I have friends who could do this, but I don't want it to be a favour since I might want to do it multiple times for multiple addresses. (Yes, the chocolates are really good!) I am hoping for a paid solution.)

I need chocolate!

mrfuga0 — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:38:27 -0800

I need Bon-o-bons. Where can I buy them? It happened again. I went abroad and fell in love with a product I can't find in the US. The culprit is Argentina's Arcor Bon-o-bons. Where can one purchase them in the US? I'd be willing to order them from abroad if necessary (though I do balk at paying $15 or more in shipping). If it helps, I live in central Missouri and regularly go to St Louis, Nashville and Los Angeles.

PS: There seems to be a US version called Arcor Whisper Chocolate Bon-bons. I can't figure out where to buy these either.

Lyonnaise chocolate imported the States?

ASoze — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:45:07 -0800

Can I get Bernachon (Lyon, France) chocolate shipped to the U.S.? I absolutely love Bernachon chocolates, but living in the United States has put quite a damper on that. I've searched their website extensively, but I'm afraid I don't speak enough French to call the store and ask. Their website talks about shipping, and I'm perfectly willing to pay a premium for the service, but I'm not sure if they are willing and able to ship all the way to the States. Does anyone have any experience with this chocolatier, and could offer any advice?

Need my grainy, yoghurty deliciousness, please.

the luke parker fiasco — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:35:44 -0800

EstonianFoodFilter: Where can I find Estonian food products (specifically kama jahu) in the US? When I was last in Tallinn I impulsively picked up a couple bags of kama flour at a supermarket before I left, and have been slowly feasting on their delicious contents until they are almost gone. I would like to get more, but haven't had any luck locating a supplier in the US (ran down the suggestions in this question, to no avail). I've had a bit more luck locating the Finnish analogue, but preferred the Estonian. Any leads on where to find this in the US/N. America?

Saving .csv files in Excel

Mr_Zero — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:06:36 -0800

About a dozen people have tried to solve this. All failed. Exporting from Excel to .csv causes cells to show #NAME? instead of the actual value. The file was created by exporting the product options from a shopping cart application. This is a .xlsx file. It is the only way that I could figure out to keep the data from being altered.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zhhlz03hlxh55hb

Column O contains the product model number extensions. So on the front end if you select Natural Gas or Propane it appends a -NG or -LP to the root model number.

An easy way to make bulk changes to products/options/pricing/etc. is to export the corresponding file and change the data in Excel and then import the updated file.

The cart exports a .cvs files and will only import .cvs files.

When you open the exported file in Excel all of the occurrences of -NG/-LP have been changed to =-NG/=-LP and display as #NAME?. This happens even if you format column O to be text. I can do a replace and remove all the =, however when I save it as a .cvs file they are altered again.

I have tried this with Excel, Open Office Calc and Google docs. All of them produce the same results.

Does anyone know how to take the above file and save it as a .cvs without it adding a = to every cell whose contents begin with a -?

what do you sell to the folks who sell us everything?

seansbrain — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:49:15 -0800

I'm headed into Taiwan in a short while. Not to be indelicate, but I want to know what carry-on luggage-sized items I could bring to sell for a couple of bucks. I'm not looking to make a ton of money here, just do a bit of horse-trading. All of my googling leads me to information about the other way around; exporting out to the U.S, likely due to taiwan being a major hub for electronic manufacture.

Live in Canada, want to sell my car. Now what?

dougunderscorenelso — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:21:35 -0800

I imported my car to Canada from the USA while in Vancouver on a work visa, so (as a non-settler) I paid no taxes on it. Now, I'd like to sell it — what should I do? Go back to the border office and import it for reals (how much would this cost?) or export it back to the US and sell it in a Carmax in Seattle or something? Any help would be appreciated! I know there are instructions for this online but everything I've read on the CA government site since coming here has been confusing (and occasionally wrong).

When I insured the car here, they took my title and replaced it with a proof of insurance — if taking it back to the US is the best option, would I need to go to my insurance company for a different document to transfer?

What does it take to establish oneself as an importer into the US?

dzkalman — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:56:33 -0800

What does it take to establish oneself as an importer into the US? A relative of mine lives in Israel and has been manufacturing and selling a number of products, including (so far): honey, soap, chapstick, and liqueurs. It's a family business, so the quantities are relatively small, but this is more than just a hobby for him.

His products have a market in the US and I'd like to help him sell his products here. Since I live in the US and am an American citizen, I've been wondering if I could set myself up as an importer in order to market his products here.

Here's what I'm wondering:
- First: Is this economically feasible, or are the various important taxes prohibitively high? Are the start-up costs expensive?
- Second: Since I am a full-time student, would the day-to-day operating of an import business simply take too much time?
- Third: Is there a major different between the products that he is selling for import purposes? I assume that the alcohol has its own rules.

Any good books/websites on the topic would be equally appreciated.

Financing hell

Beardman — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:17:26 -0800

My friends bought a new car in Canada, moved to the States, and just discovered that they violated their financing agreement by taking the car abroad for over 30 days. Nissan Canada's financing people say they have a month to pay the whole car off--$18,000--or it gets repossessed and their credit is ruined. They don't have that kind of money. What would you do? When my friends bought the car, they told the dealership they were moving to Chicago and asked whether that mattered. Nissan said: "Not at all!" But I guess the dealership isn't the same as the financing people.

After they got the threatening call from Nissan, they checked the fine print of the financing agreement, and it does indeed say that they can't take the car out of the country for over 30 days. Now Nissan is saying it's an illegal import and pressuring them to pay it all off immediately. They said they couldn't, and Nissan told them to declare bankruptcy.

What are their options? Is it worth seeing a lawyer, or are they just screwed by that fine print?

(You are not my, their, or probably anyone's lawyer.)

Where can I buy cheap import electronics in Seattle?

stenseng — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:34:29 -0800

Recommend places to shop for cheap import electronics in Seattle. Think knockoff ipads, android tablets, unlocked smartphones, and other geeky gadgets straight off the boat from China...The kinda stuff you can get at sites like www.chinavasion.com

Showcasing websites in a print portfolio?

pearl228 — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:26:05 -0800

How can I capture my blog pages as images to import into InDesign? (Tryin' to create a portfolio here...) I am a non-designer whipping together a print portfolio in InDesign to submit as part of an application to a design program. As part of this, I'd like to include quality images a couple of websites I created in the past.

I can note the URL on the print portfolio, but it is preferable if I supply a USB key or CD with a pdf of the sites. And I need images of the site for the print portfolio regardless. The problem I am running into is converting a site into a pdf that does not do anything funky with the text or images. Specifically, I have been running into issues with pdfs screwing up the text ("Categories" becomes "C A T E" or the fonts - standard ones like Courier - are switched to Times or the like). The blogs are hosted on TypePad.

Screen shots are suboptimal as the content I'd like to capture in a single go extends beyond the frame of my browser.

If I could figure out how to save the site as XML, it looks like I could then import it into InDesign and create a pdf from there.

Design / web geniuses of MeFi, I thank you in advance for your help!