One of my tasks at work is to clean up old unused files and directories to streamline productivity. In order to do so, I would need a list of everything in the directory to know what I am getting rid of and where to move certain files. Well, Windows doesn’t provide a direct way to get a list of file names in a folder directory. But I’ve found a way to create such a list in a text file, which then can be imported into Excel.

To generate a list of file names, you’ll need to use a DOS command typed in a DOS command window. To open a DOS command window:

1. Click the Windows Start button
2. Click Run
3. Type “cmd” (no quotes) and press Enter.

You’ll get a window like the one shown below.

Next, you need to type a DOS command to generate the file list. For example, if you would like to generate a list of all files in the root directory of drive D, type the following at the command prompt and press Enter:

dir d:\

To list the files in a particular directory, add the directory name after the drive:

dir d:\yourfoldername\

The file names will be listed in the window. To save the list, redirect the output to a text file by using the “>” character and specify a file name. For example, to send the file names to a text file named filelist.txt in the root directory of drive C, use this command:

dir d:\yourfoldername\ >c:\filelist.txt

After the text file is generated, you can import it into Excel:

1. Open Excel
2. Create a new spreadsheet
3. Go to File, Open, scroll down to “All Files Types” and select filelist.txt

Excel will automatically create the necessary columns from your text file.

For more information about creating directory file lists, check out SpreadSheetPage.com.

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You know how to create custom ringtones for your iPhone but have you ever wondered if it were possible to change the text, voicemail, and alarm sounds? These are called UI sounds that are one to three seconds long, in .AIF or .CAF audio format. You can create and customize these sounds if you have an iPhone that is jailbroken and equipped with OpenSSH and wifi.

The following instructions are for Macs but I’m sure they are very similar for any PC.

Part 1: Creating Custom UI Sounds

To create custom UI sounds, open iTunes and go to Preferences → General → Import Settings to make sure that you’ve selected “Import Using: AIFF Encoder.”

Select the song that you want to make into a UI sound. To trim, write down the start and stop times of the song while making sure it doesn’t exceed 3 seconds long.

Right-click the song and select “Get Info.” Click the “Options” tab and type in the start and stop times in minutes:seconds (ie 2:01) format, click “OK” when done.

Right-click your song again and select “Create AIFF Version.” Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version and the UI sound file should be the one with the shorter time.

Delete the newly created AIF file, making sure that you click “keep files” so you’re only removing the sound from your playlist, not from your computer.

Find the file. It’s usually in your user folder under Music → iTunes → iTunes Music saved under the band’s name with an extension of AIF. Rename the AIF extension to CAF*

*For PCs: If you cannot view file extensions, go to your folder options in your windows explorer and change your view settings to uncheck the box for “Hide File Extensions for Known File Types.”

Part 2: Uploading Custom UI Sounds

Now that you have your custom tones, connect to your iPhone via SSH (remember to turn your wifi on!)

Navigate to this folder /System/Library/Audio/ and make a backup of the entire UISounds folder before making any changes! I am not responsible for anything that happens to your original tones so back them up in case anything goes wrong!!!

After you have the UISounds folder backed up on your computer, you can start replacing these files with your custom tones. Make sure you rename your custom tones exactly as the filenames in the UISounds folder. Here are some of the ones that you might be interested in customizing:

• beep-beep.caf – The sound played when docking the iPhone.
• dtmf-0.caf – The sound played when pressing 0 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-1.caf – The sound played when pressing 1 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-2.caf – The sound played when pressing 2 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-3.caf – The sound played when pressing 3 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-4.caf – The sound played when pressing 4 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-5.caf – The sound played when pressing 5 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-6.caf – The sound played when pressing 6 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-7.caf – The sound played when pressing 7 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-8.caf – The sound played when pressing 8 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-9.caf – The sound played when pressing 9 on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-pound.caf – The sound played when pressing # on the phone keypad.
• dtmf-star.caf – The sound played when pressing * on the phone keypad.
• lock.caf – The sound played when pressing the Sleep/Wake button.
• mail-sent.caf – The sound played when sending an email.
• new-mail.caf – The sound played when an email is received.
• photoShutter.caf – The sound played when taking a picture.
• sms-received1.caf – The text message sound called Tri-tone.
• sms-received2.caf – The text message sound called Chime.
• sms-received3.caf – The text message sound called Glass.
• sms-received4.caf – The text message sound called Horn.
• sms-received5.caf – The text message sound called Bell.
• sms-received6.caf – The text message sound called Electronic.
• unlock.caf – The sound played when you “slide to unlock”.
• Voicemail.caf – The sound played when you receive a voicemail message.

Upload everything into the UISounds folder on your iPhone and restart it for changes to take effect. Besides having to go to Settings → Sounds to change your text message sound, the rest of the custom tones should be automatically updated.

For more information on custom UI sounds, check out HackThatPhone.com.

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If you are using Entourage as your email client on Mac OS X, then you are probably having the same problem when trying to embed moving animated GIF files in your emails. Entourage will let you create simple HTML emails such as modified fonts but not complex ones like tables or animations. So when you try to embed an animation, it gets attached as a still JPEG or a static GIF. There is, of course, a workaround for this issue.

Create your e-mail in Microsoft Word. Open a new document and go to Insert → Picture → From file…

Compose your email. Once you’re ready, go to File → Send To → Mail Recipient (as HTML)…

This will open up a new window in Entourage with your composed e-mail.

Hit Send and you’ll notice the animation is moving and embedded in the email!

It’s an extra few steps, but it can be done!

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First, don’t panic.

Immediately take out your phone battery and dry the phone with a towel. The reason why our phones stop working after its been in the water is because the battery shorts the phone when you try to turn it on again without letting it dry. The only way to save your wet cellphone is to put your phone in a bag of rice. It sounds absurd but the rice sucks up the moisture that’s in the phone. Be patient and leave it in there for 2 to 3 days without turning the phone on. After a few days, take it out of the bag of rice and leave it on something warm like the TV for a few minutes before turning it back on.

I have a few friends who said it worked for them so best of luck!

To read testimonials on this rice resurrection method, checkout Lifehacker.

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I had a couple of items stuck in my trash bin for about a week now. No matter how many times I tried to empty the trash bin or restart the computer, I got an error message saying the operation cannot be completed because the file was still in use! Do you have the same annoying issue?

Fear not! Because there is a way to force them to delete!

1. Open the Terminal program. You can find this in the Utilities Folder.
2. Type in  rm -r .Trash/ to empty out the trash bin.
3. Close all apps and restart computer!

I hope this helps!

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