Graduated again

In September I graduated again, this time from the Faculty of Computer and Information Science of the University of Ljubljana. My graduation thesis, "Analysis of Slovenian politics activity on Twitter" (in Slovenian "Analiza slovenskega političnega prostora na Twitterju") is available on-line and the code used to get the data is available on github.
In my thesis I analysed the Slovenian political activity on Twitter, both on a party and on a deputy level. I tried to find a correlation between election results, activity (tweets per day), number of tweets and number of followers, the lexical diversity of words, hashtags and mentions used in tweets and the connections between the followers and the parties/deputies.
While researching the connections I created a few maps of Slovenian politics on Twitter. The first one depicts the parties (coloured circles) and their followers (grey circles).

The second map is similar, but this time it shows deputies (same colour as their parties). instead of parties.

The other maps show only the followers of the deputies from the same party. You'll find there's no maps for two parties, as one has only one tweeting deputy and the other one doesn't have a connection between the two tweeting deputies.

DL deputies

NSi deputies

PS deputies

SD deputies

SDS deputies

I generated the graphs using the code available on github and the pictures using Gephi.

An A Song of Ice and Fire network

This post contains spoilers for both the book series A Song of Ice and Fire and the TV show Game of Thrones.
For a school project we had to create a network, so I decided I'd create an ASOIAF network starting from Ned. Using A Wiki of Ice and Fire and Gephi, I created a network with characters as nodes and their relationships as edges. The relationships I used were spouses, siblings and parent-child.

As can be seen from the network graph, most of the great houses are connected. In fact, only the Greyjoys are missing.

I'm including the .gephi file as well as a .gml file if anyone would like to play with the data.
Gephi file
GML file

Edit: Added Walder Frey's bastard children

Facebook photos privacy

If you are a facebook user, you might have seen posts that go something like this

"I enjoy my privacy so please make a few clicks so if you like my status/pictures/whatever, they won't show on your friends' walls."

This works well with status updates (though it's pretty stupid that we need to do that and how can you be sure that all of your friends will do that or that facebook won't just change the privacy settings again?), but there's a problem with the photos you upload. While this method will hide them from your friends' friends, they are not 100% safe from strangers. Let me elaborate on that.
If you take the url to a photo in a facebook gallery, like this for example http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151265478032446&set=a.10151214746012446.480779.679047445&type=3&theater, only my friends will be able to see it. But if you take the direct URL of the picture (right click on picture -> show image or something like that) you get a URL like this http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/311217_10151265478032446_2030697084_n.jpg, you can give it to anyone and they can see the photo. As you can see, the name of the picture is made out of three numbers separated by an underscore, with the middle number representing the picture id. Here's a few more examples:
http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/60675_10151201144402446_161978646_n.jpg
http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/223340_10151217072382446_1638752273_n.jpg
http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/58367_10151201145747446_1713269601_n.jpg
http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/314234_10151219854077446_1301291355_n.jpg
http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/269560_10150260576312446_7947755_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/25160_383525892445_8208924_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/644233_407306429357603_1603733801_n.jpg
(The last one is actually not mine, but I needed it to make a point)
As you can see, the photos are saved at two other locations, fbcdn.net and akamaihd.net. From the given examples it shouldn't be too hard to write a small program that checks all the combinations and downloads the photo, if it finds it. Now, you can't target a specific user, as the user id isn't present in the URL, but it's still scary that getting ALL the photos on facebook is just a few minutes of coding away (not sure how legal it is though).
In conclusion, treat your data on facebook like a blog: everyone can see it, but only a few people actually will.

Dusting off this blog

It's been quite a while since I posted anything here. I have a couple of ideas and projects that I want to do, that I'm going to write about in the future, so hopefully I'll be more active here.

About a Boy

The following post contains spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.

The first time I heard about the novel About a Boy by Nick Hornby was at my first year of social work, where we read a few excerpts at the English class. It wasn't until much later that I watched the movie and liked it. A few weeks ago the movie was on TV again and I rewatched, liked it again and decided to read the book as well. Now I finished the book and it's really good.
So, what are the differences? Up to about half the book the movie was quite a good adaptation, only leaving out a few minor things (Marcus renting Groundhog Day) and changing others (in the book, they went to the picnic with Suzie's car). The later part contained more discrepancies and the ending is totally different. Where the ending in the movie with Marcus and Will singing Killing me Softly was very sweet, the ending in the book with the jail was much better at showing how much the characters have grown during the story.
In conclusion, this is a very nice story, the differences make it worth both reading and watching it. They are both new entries in my favourite books/movies :)

X-Men: The Last Stand & First Class anomalies

I recently watched the latest X-Men movie (First Class). It is by far the best of the series. But the end brings some anomalies with the beginning of the third movie (Last Stand).
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The majority of First Class is set in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. At the end of the movie Charles/Prof X still has hair, loses the ability to walk, parts ways with Erik/Magneto and starts his school.
The prologue of Last Stand is set "20 years ago" (the majority of the movie is set "in the not too distant future", so this should be in the 80s), where a bald and walking Charles goes with Erik to visit Jean Grey's parents and talk to them about his school.

I think there are two possible explanations for these anomalies.
1) Each od these two movies is set in its own universe, while the other three are set in either or both.
2) Some time after the events of First Class Magneto takes his helmet off and returns to Xavier. Xavier installs some kind of iron exoskeleton and sends telepathic signals to Magneto who in turn uses his powers to move the exoskeleton.

School's out!

For more than a week now, but haven't had the will to post it :D I finished all of my exams so I'm free until October. Except for that one day in September when I have to enrol. But until then I have lots of free time.

I borrowed some Discworld books from the library, I started playing SimCity4 and I plan on doing some programming for fun. And watch movies.

Series' cancellation

Towards the end of May is the time, when most series get the final verdict, either they are cancelled or renewed. I picked up a few new series to watch this year , so I was especially curious which ones I'll get to watch next season again. The result? Only The Game of Thrones.
Here are the ones that didn't make it:

• No Ordinary Family: I actually gave up on this super-powered family after about 10 episodes myself, so no tears shed here.
• Shit My Dad Says: A nice comedy about father-son relationships. It ended with a cliffhanger!
• Better With You: Another comedy, this time about three couples (a mature couple, their two daughters and their boyfriends). Luckily this one had a nice finale that rounded up the story.
• Off the Map: Grey's Anatomy in the jungle, what could be wrong about that? Apparently enough to get them cancelled with a cliffhanger.
• The Event: Biggest disappointment. The show was getting better with each episode. One more episode next week. There's a bit of hope that the show may be picked up by some other network... fingers crossed.
• Lie to Me: Not a new show, this one got cancelled after three seasons. It was a good show, with real science behind it, good actors and characters. Unfortunately it missed a central plot, a red line to connect the episodes.
  
• (Smallville: Not cancelled, but finally reached its final season. It's finally over and I'm free from its spell. At least until the spin-offs come...)
  

Pkmn Black: 3rd gym

It's actually been about a week since I've defeathed the 3rd gym, but I haven't had the time and/or will to blog about it.
So, the third gym specializes in bug pokemon. As I chose the fire starter, I already had the type advantage, but even if I didn't, there were already flying type pokemon available to catch. The gym is shaped like a honeycomb with rubbery walls and switches to unlock gates.
But what I actually wanted to note is how many areas that are far from a city (and pokecentre) have a person at the beginning who, once defeated, will heal your team. Another nice addition :)

Holidays!

Finally! And after three tests in this past week, I feel these 10 free days and quite deserved :D
Still, have some catching up to do with school work, some things I wanted to put on my blog and most importantly, relax!
Happy holidays, everyone

Celebrating St. Patrick's day

I'm two days late with this post, but it's been two busy days, so I'm excused :D

For St. Patrick's day I decided to prepare a green meal, so I baked a green lasagna: green lasagna pasta and green spinach (and cottage cheese) filling, topped with grated cheese, served on a plate with a green rim. I love how simple and fast the recipe is and how great the result tastes :) Here are some pics of it:As the day wasn't green enough for us, Ana and me watched The Green Hornet. It's a weird movie. Not that the acting is bad, the characters are weird. It's a nice laugh, I guess. To cut it short: I don't recommend it, but I don't not recommend it either.

Pkmn Black: Second gym and forward

The second gym specializes in normal types. And again the game is kind enough to provide an area just outside the city, where you can catch three different fighting pokemon. Remember the first generation, where the only thing against Brock were your starter, a bug depending on the version and Pikachu?
Another great change is the new itemfinder/dowsing machine. It was already better in HGSS, where you could walk around with the itemfinder constantly pressed, and now it's even better you don't even need to press it, but it works automatically and startspinging when a hidden item is nearby.
Now I'm chasing team plasma in Pinwheel Forest.
Current team: Tepig, evolved Lilipup, the blue judo guy, Munna, grass monkey, Poliwag's ripoff

Complex numbers in Java

Our last programming homework had us write a Java class to implement some operations with complex numbers. As I found it pretty interesting, I'm sharing my file on here.
Examples of usage are in comments in the file. If anyone has any questions or suggestions on how to make it better, feel free to drop a line here or on email.
ComplexNumber.java

Pkmn Black: After the first gym

I managed to put in some more playtime into Pokemon Black and got my first badge yesterday, whoohoo! :D I liked the animation after obtaining it. Also it's a nice thing to have the gym leader use a type advantage against you, even nicer to get a type advantage against him for free :D What I don't like is the absence of the "button" that enables you to run by default, as in HG/SS. That was really a great addition, shame they took it away. I really don't know why can't they leave all the good stuff introduced in previous generations.
I got to the city with the second gym (sorry, don't know the names yet), but haven't challenged the gym leader yet - I'm taking it slow, level-upping and capturing everything on the way.

Pokemon Black

Yesterday I finally got my Pokemon Black! I chose the Black version because of its more technological tone (as I'm studying computer science). I haven't been able to put much playtime in it yet, as I'm busy with school right now, just an hour or two. So far I must say I like the new battle screen, all the zooming around, but I'm disappointed with the zoom. What's this pixelated view? I'm not playing Blue, I'm playing Black!

Now back to my homework.

New semester

It's been two weeks since the new semester has started. Before it started we got a timetable that was full of bugs (overlapping classes, two courses in the same classroom in the same time), so these first two weeks were like some kind of beta testing, where we, the students, were beta testers and the school issued some patches. Now we finally got a (more or less) stable version, which is not very user friendly (twice I have classes almost the whole day, once only one hour).
I have five new subjects this semester: Linear algebra, Databases basics, Programming and algorithms, Computer communications and Human-computer communication. I am mostly excited about the latter one, as it combines psychology and computer science.

Heroes demotivational

Here's my first attempt at a demotivational:



After reading the story about Bono clapping his hands every few seconds, saying that every time he claps his hands a child in Africa dies and someone telling him to stop clapping, but I found out this story is just a myth, plus there's already a few demos about that.
Anyway, I found out MS Powerpoint is the perfect tool for making demotivationals :D

Update! Dusting off the blog

It's been almost two years since my last post. It's not like I totally forgot about it, I actually thought about posting here and there, though the posts would be something like "Oh I haven't posted in soooo long, I should do it soon", making me that kind of blogger, which I don't want. Anyway, now I'll try to post more regularly.

Here's what happened in the past 2 years in a nutshell:
After graduating I started looking for a job, first in Nova Gorica and surroundins. Unfortunately I was cought in the "experience magic circle" (you can't get a job because you lack experience, but you can get experience if you don't have a job) and the "no money for internship excuse". See, many of the jobs I could do with my degree require me to first finish a year of internship first (in case someone who wants to go to FSD reaches this blog: BEWARE! It's really tough getting a job as a social worker!).
Then in September (still 2009) I moved to Ljubljana with my girlfriend as she started school here. I started looking for a job here, I even went to some interviews, but got nothing. Towards the end of the year I enrolled back to my old school to upgrade my degree to a university one (as opposed to the college one), which I got in February (2010). Now my full title is "Rok Gomišček, univ. dipl. soc. del". After that still no luck with getting a job, though I got better at Guild Wars at that time...
In the middle of Summer luck seemed to be about to change as finally there was an official call for 200 internship places by the social chamber. The protocol was as follows: get in touch with an organisation (no list given), they send an application form for you and in the case of more than 200 applicants, you get scored on various criteria. As I found out about this somewhat later and I was at the sea at that time, I started sending emails to various organisations whether they'd take me for the internship. I got a few replies back that they wanted to meet me for an interview, but I also got a reply from MDMB, with an internship plan and no need for interviews, just signing the papers. To cut a long story short, I didn't get the internship, because this organisation falls under the education chamber and not under the social chamber.
Then I decided to go to school again, as it's better than just sit and wait for a job and do nothing else. I applied for psychology and computer science, didn't get in the first one, but got accepted in the latter. I'm happy there, doing fine, just finished the first semester.
Oh, and we finally got a Wii :D

That's about the bigger changes in the past two years. Stay tuned for new posts ;)

PS: If you check the previous post, I got another wish granted (about the next pokemon generation) :)

A wish came true!

One of the wishes I made in a November '08 entry came true! They have finally unveiled the names for the 2nd Pokémon generation games remake: Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Yes, I find the names strange too. I prefer the speculated Dusk and Dawn, or Sun and Moon. Oh well, as long as there is the remake on the way :D Though one of the greatest things about the 2nd generation was the HUGE step forward the games made (day/night, shinies, colours, ...) and being remakes I doubt there will be any big improvements. Let's hope for them in the next gen in about 2-3 years ;)

Rok Gomišček, dipl. soc. del.

I did it! Yesterday I finally graduated!
Even though I had been somewhat nervous the previous day and had a terrible night (two graduation related nightmares), when I got in front of the blackboard to defend my thesis, I felt good and gave a good presentation. After that my mentor gave some comments and asked me a question I didn't totally understand, but somehow I answered her. The other two teachers just gave "short" talks and no questions. After a bit of waiting they told me I got an 8 for both the thesis and presentation. I was disappointed as I expected at least a 9... Anyway, my overall grade is so still a perfect 8, which I always considered my lucky number.
After graduating we (dad, Ana and me) went to a Mongolian restaurant in Ljubljana, where we had a great all-you-can-eat lunch. The waitress found out that I graduated and gave me a tie to match my shirt ^^
Later, in the afternoon, the adrenaline subsided and tiredness came. :)