diff --git a/pyfpdb/Charset.py b/pyfpdb/Charset.py
index 5851683a..ea19d32e 100644
--- a/pyfpdb/Charset.py
+++ b/pyfpdb/Charset.py
@@ -28,12 +28,12 @@ encoder_to_utf = codecs.lookup('utf-8')
 encoder_to_sys = codecs.lookup(Configuration.LOCALE_ENCODING)
 
 # I'm saving a few cycles with this one
-not_needed = False
+not_needed1, not_needed2, not_needed3 = False, False, False
 if Configuration.LOCALE_ENCODING == 'UTF8':
-    not_needed = True
+    not_needed1, not_needed2, not_needed3 = True, True, True
 
 def to_utf8(s):
-    if not_needed: return s
+    if not_needed1: return s
 
     try:
         #(_out, _len) = encoder_to_utf.encode(s)
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ def to_utf8(s):
         return s
 
 def to_db_utf8(s):
-    if not_needed: return s
+    if not_needed2: return s
 
     try:
         (_out, _len) = encoder_to_utf.encode(unicode(s))
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ def to_db_utf8(s):
         raise
 
 def to_gui(s):
-    if not_needed: return s
+    if not_needed3: return s
 
     try:
         (_out, _len) = encoder_to_sys.encode(s)
diff --git a/pyfpdb/Configuration.py b/pyfpdb/Configuration.py
index 9c14d16f..639007f1 100644
--- a/pyfpdb/Configuration.py
+++ b/pyfpdb/Configuration.py
@@ -144,6 +144,11 @@ if LOCALE_ENCODING == "US-ASCII":
     print "Default encoding set to US-ASCII, defaulting to CP1252 instead -- If you're not on a Mac, please report this problem."
     LOCALE_ENCODING = "cp1252"
 
+
+# needs LOCALE_ENCODING (above), imported for sqlite setup in Config class below
+import Charset
+
+
 ########################################################################
 def string_to_bool(string, default=True):
     """converts a string representation of a boolean value to boolean True or False
@@ -648,6 +653,10 @@ class Config:
             db['db-backend'] = 3
         elif self.supported_databases[name].db_server== DATABASE_TYPE_SQLITE:
             db['db-backend'] = 4
+            # sqlcoder: this assignment fixes unicode problems for me with sqlite (windows, cp1252)
+            #           feel free to remove or improve this if you understand the problems
+            #           better than me (not hard!)
+            Charset.not_needed1, Charset.not_needed2, Charset.not_needed3 = True, True, True
         else:
             raise ValueError('Unsupported database backend: %s' % self.supported_databases[name].db_server)
         return db
diff --git a/pyfpdb/Database.py b/pyfpdb/Database.py
index a8456294..754af54a 100644
--- a/pyfpdb/Database.py
+++ b/pyfpdb/Database.py
@@ -372,7 +372,6 @@ class Database:
                     print msg
                     raise FpdbError(msg)
         elif backend == Database.SQLITE:
-            log.info("Connecting to SQLite: %(database)s" % {'database':database})
             import sqlite3
             if use_pool:
                 sqlite3 = pool.manage(sqlite3, pool_size=1)
@@ -385,7 +384,8 @@ class Database:
                     log.info("Creating directory: '%s'" % (self.config.dir_databases))
                     os.mkdir(self.config.dir_databases)
                 database = os.path.join(self.config.dir_databases, database)
-            log.info("  sqlite db: " + database)
+            log.info("Connecting to SQLite: %(database)s" % {'database':database})
+            print "Connecting to SQLite: %(database)s" % {'database':database}
             self.connection = sqlite3.connect(database, detect_types=sqlite3.PARSE_DECLTYPES )
             sqlite3.register_converter("bool", lambda x: bool(int(x)))
             sqlite3.register_adapter(bool, lambda x: "1" if x else "0")
@@ -1769,10 +1769,7 @@ class Database:
 
     def insertPlayer(self, name, site_id):
         result = None
-        if self.backend == self.SQLITE:
-            _name = name
-        else:
-            _name = Charset.to_db_utf8(name)
+        _name = Charset.to_db_utf8(name)
         c = self.get_cursor()
         q = "SELECT name, id FROM Players WHERE siteid=%s and name=%s"
         q = q.replace('%s', self.sql.query['placeholder'])