Import CSV file into Microsoft SQL Server via SQL command

I find this method way easier than messing with SQL Server Import/Export Wizard.  Although it can be useful to have the wizard create the target table definition first.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TargetTable] (
    [Id] [int] NULL,
    [StringCol] [varchar](MAX) NULL,
    [IntCol] [int] NULL
    -- additional columns here
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO


BULK INSERT [dbo].[TargetTable]
    FROM 'C:\pathto\SourceFile.csv'
    WITH
    (
        FIRSTROW = 2,             -- 2 if there are headers
        FIELDTERMINATOR = ',',    -- field delimiter
        ROWTERMINATOR = '\n',     -- next row
        ERRORFILE = 'C:\pathto\_ImportErrors.txt',
        TABLOCK
    )
GO

Background download of wikipedia dump on Linux

A handy way to download a wikipedia dump in the background in such a way that it continues after ending a terminal session:

$ nohup wget -bqc http://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwiki/20140707/enwiki-20140707-pages-articles-multistream.xml.bz2

Latest wiki dump url can be found here:
http://dumps.wikimedia.org/backup-index.html

References:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/nohup-execute-commands-after-you-exit-from-a-shell-prompt.html
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-wget-your-ultimate-command-line-downloader.html

Setting up an FTP server on CentOS 6.x

Need FTP access on a CentOS machine? Easy.

sudo yum install vsftpd
sudo service vsftpd start
sudo chkconfig vsftpd on
chkconfig --list

sudo vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf # edit default conf file to have these lines:
    anonymous_enable=NO
    chroot_local_user=YES
    chroot_list_enable=NO
    chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
    pasv_min_port=3000
    pasv_max_port=3050
   
sudo touch /etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
sudo /sbin/service vsftpd restart

Done.

Note that these steps have been grabbed from this Rackspace article that includes much more detail:
http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/rackspace-cloud-essentials-centos-installing-vsftpd