Nano sim stuck in micro-sim slot 2 for Nokia Lumia 730

Published January 19, 2015 11:40 am

A while back ( 6 weeks), I had purchased dual sim nokia lumia 730. I had got introduced to micro/nano sim terminology with the phone since the phone had micro-sim slots. Micro/nano are smaller and more-small sim form factors of sim and latest mobile phones sim  have these kind of sim slots; old (big) size sim does not fit in these slots. I have to exchange my old (normal size) sim to get a Micro sim from the Vodafone store. This is short summary about micro/nano sims. google can give more technical details about these terms.

At Vodafone store, I asked the most compatible sim and the executive offered me nano sim with micro & normal sim adapters. Adapters are essentially containers where the smaller size sim can be inserted.

Recently I purchased a second connection & it came with a nano sim. I did not pay much attention to realize that it is nano sim!!! and tried to put in micro sim slot 2 of my nokia lumia 730. It slid inside & I realized soon that it is not the correct size sim. but there was no way to get the sim out. I took the phone to Nokia care. Unfortunately – Nokia care concluded that 2nd sim slot is not accessible even after opening the phone; slot is irreversibly blocked; send phone to factory to get the sim slot replaced; it won’t be covered by warranty; it will cost me ~INR 5k! Needless to say – I did not feel good. I planed to active 2nd sim and here I was – with 2nd slot permanently blocked & no solution to fix it.

At the end of the day, I tried my luck on google. I found few recipes like using tweezers, cutting the sim slot, pressing the pins using a thin thing and shaking the phone to get the sim out. Nothing worked. I had almost given up & was thinking of raising my 1year accidental insurance claim as last resort. At this time, I found this intelligent solution. Before you read further – watch the video.

The solution worked and helped get the stuck nano sim in micro sim slot out. Here are my observations from the experience:

  1. Cut the card strip from the middle of the card – to avoid rounded corners.
  2. Cut the card strip that fits the width of the sim card – to have max contact area with the sim.
  3. Insert the card strip and feel the touch with the sim. Gentle push will give the feel of the spring action – before applying faviquik.
  4. Apply faviquik just enough – to avoid spilling on the pins in the slot.
  5. Keep the phone such that gravity acts against the faviquik spilling on pins.
  6. Time to keep the strip in slot for 5 minutes. Blow little air from mouth. Give time; be patient.

Faviquik manufacturers wouldn’t have thought how it can help in such circumstances! Its a great tool. Kudos to Saurabh for the awesome trick that likely saved 10s of phones / sim slots from becoming unusable!!

Onedrive synced picture file does not open in the photo viewer for preview

Published December 26, 2014 6:12 pm

I have recently faced this on my windows 8.1 machine. With windows 8.1, one drive is by default integrated into the windows explorer; onedrive shows as a top level node in the left hand side pane along side this pc, favorites etc.

The issue was that I could see the preview of the picture in the windows explorer but when I right click -> preview, photo viewer will fail to open the file. Also copy and paste of the photo will fail. Error code – 80040A47. I could not find any description for this error code. Finally I used command prompt and did dir /a in the folder. It listed the files. dir without /a won’t list the files. attrib * command failed saying Target of the symbolic link is missing. Something was wrong with onedrive on the machine.

I googled. did not find any hit. Finally decided to post a question to onedrive forum at answers.microsoft.com. That is when I came across this helpful link. Since I was not up to date with all windows updates, I updated the machine first. Later I ran the diagnostic tool from this place. It took couple of minutes & Bingo! Problem was resolved. Many of the files were marked with availability as online-only. I have to force sync them or they get downloaded as and when I access them. This is likely side-effect of the reset done by the diagnostic tool.

What is availability online-only in context of onedrive?

Well – there is a availability attribute for each of the local synced copy of files on onedrive. In windows explorer right pane, you can right click -> view -> details and you can see the attribute in the list. If the file is not synced – availability attribute is set of online-only. otherwise, it is set to available-offline. To force sync the file, you can right click -> make available offline.

Machine learning course is insightful about how we behave and can get better!

Published November 14, 2014 6:18 am

Mind BackdropRecent few months, I have been taking machine learning course @ coursera and it is insightful in how science and mathematics is putting mathematical model around how human (mind) behave – grasp, analyze and decide – for real life situations – based on the past experiences (learning)!

Few of the machine learning terms are interesting and draw close parallel to human (mind) and behavior.

ConceptMachine LearningHuman Learning
BiasWhen machine learning hypothesis has high bias, it give similar outcome even if the inputs change. In other words, it does not vary much with inputs. When I have high prejudice, my outcome is same even if the environmental parameters change.
VarianceMachine learning hypothesis is suffering from high variance when it matches the output for the training set very well but fails to give decent output for the new inputs which are outside the training set. One of the reason is that hypothesis is using high polynomial terms aka complex features.This is the case of over analysis & being rigid. When I over-analyze the past to really make sense of everything that happened, my learning is too specific to the past circumstances but not generalized enough to give fair reaction/outcome for a future situation.
Under fittingIt is when hypothesis is too simplistic and does not even fit the training set well.This is the case of being naïve. This is when my reasoning does not even justify well the behavior for past circumstances.
Over fittingWhen hypothesis is too complex, it fits the training set well but not gives good output for the new inputs outside the training set.Again, it is the case of being too narrowly focused and not generalizing enough to learn from past experience.
featuresThe inputs - vector x Are we sampling enough parameters when analyzing a past situation?
feature weightageThe theta vectorWhat should be this? Any guess.

This list can go on and it is interesting to note how machine learning closely draws from how a human learns!

For a machine learning algorithm – picking the right features (vector x), their correct weightage and big enough training set is key whereas for human – paying attention to detail, correct weightage for the past experiences and of course more experiences helps to get better!

 

Is it possible to smile when surrounded by hardship?

Published September 23, 2014 12:14 pm

Haven’t all of us seen hard times? Hard time – when things don’t go as expected. In my case, what comes hardest is sick time; time when I have ailing body. I find pleasure in a body that can cope up hardships. When it ails, I feel down. It is said smile eases the pain but is it possible to smile when you are surrounded by hardship?

Yes. I can smile but deep inside I know it pains and I am looking for way out of the hardship. When the hardship is over, that is when only I truly feel relieved. In fact, hardship is brought by my wrong attitude; attitude that is seeking health to the extent that when it is not there – floods me with frustration etc. I can work towards good health but good health always is not given.  Secondly, when I am frustrated with ailing health deep inside – smiling on surface only acts as easing the pain a bit but does not relieve off the pain.

Seeking no hardship will lead to – sadness, fear, anger, narrow vision whereas accepting hardships only can lead to – enthusiasm, courage, compassion and broad vision. The key to solution is to not feel frustrated at all. Is it possible? Yes, it is. Only if I realize difference between – “Good health. hence, I smile.”  Vs “I smile (I am). Hence, there is good health.”. In the simple reversal of words – the premise – changes. Good health is not premise of the smile. The smile is my natural self, my natural trait. Realizing that and by removing the “good health” (no hardship) – premise – for my smile, it is possible to smile deep inside when being surrounded by hardships.

Bimba al mare che ride

My favorite pic when I think about a true smile!

Should I put long hours to get more done?

Published September 15, 2014 10:45 am

Anytime I am stumped by need-to-do-more (more work), the first thought or approach is to add more hours to the day. I have found it hard to add more hours to the day because 1) It is very hard to compress the sleep time and remain productive still 2) Life chores don’t compress either easily 3) Reducing empty hours start to pinch since they only help me unwind and learn.

Also – it is the norm. Haven’t we heard so many times – “It has been hard week. We are putting 80 hr week.” I really wonder how people are able to sustain such work hours. Getting more done means putting more hours. It is the norm; talk of the town. If you aren’t putting long hours – you aren’t working hard enough. Isn’t that sound familiar?

I realized that putting more hours won’t help unless I have learnt to make best use of hours (that I am already putting). I can add 2 more hours fetching me 20-24% more productivity. but it can’t get me 2x-5x kind of productivity gain.

Yesterday, I had a bad day. I was continuously bombarded with one after another incidences that were not as expected. Everything seem to go unexpected way. I progressively got frustrated/angry with myself. Eventually towards the end of the day, I spent 4 hours and bad night sleep over an incidence which I could have resolved in 10 minutes (if I had right state of mind – or carried that little smile!). If I compare that, I was order of 24x time (10 min vs 4 hours)worse in my productivity to deal with a problem. Why? because I got “unsettled with the unexpected”.

Putting long hours can well be need of the hour at times. but it can’t be the norm to boost productivity. Remaining settled with whatever-come-may and carrying that little smile may get me 2x-5x and at times even better productivity!

Bimba al mare che ride