DylanLeigh.net

Hierarchical Navigation Bar

Dylan Leigh — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:53:19 GMT

As you should be able to see above, I'm experimenting with a two-level navigation bar.

Originally this was going to be "Blog"-style posts vs "Site"-style pages (mostly uni stuff from my old RMITCS site), but it's morphed into "Blog" vs "Projects". Hopefully both of them will get more varied content in the future.

I'm not really happy with the style from either a aesthetic or technical point of view and may create my own lightweight Nikola style for the site, with some nicer multi-level navigation. In particular, I would like to get rid of all site-wide Javascript dependencies, with just the occasional game or similar form-interactive pages that use JS.

Processed Honours Final Presentation Video

Dylan Leigh — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:41:53 GMT

I've cleaned up and merged the videos of my final research presentation that I recently uncovered The cleaned up version has been put on my ZFS Research Page.

Alternatively you can watch it on YouTube:

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Finally a Favicon

Dylan Leigh — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 15:12:07 GMT

When checking my sites network usage earlier, I was reminded that browsers will try to load a file called favicon.ico from any site and mine didn't have one. I was initially inspired by the two-triangle fast-forward symbol to make a site logo with my initials, in the form of a basic SVG.

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Videos of my Final Research Presentation

Dylan Leigh — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 12:21:23 GMT

While looking through some old USBs I've discovered a recording of the final presentation of my Honours Research in late 2014. I had believed this was completely lost, like the video of my BSDCan presentation which was not successfully recorded due to technical issues.

The video files have been put on my ZFS research page. The orignals are shot in profile on a 2013 era smartphone and the volume is very low - I might to try and clean them up a bit, but very glad to have the files regardless.

Small Site Retheme, and some File Size info

Dylan Leigh — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 20:18:32 GMT

Inspired by some Solarpunk Lemmy discussion especially Smolweb.org I had a look at the overhead of my Nikola site theme and was suprised by how heavy the JS and CSS was even though it was barely doing anything.

Thus, I've switched to the lighter base theme for both my personal site and Research Site. These still contain (post-compression) 9.5 KB of CSS and 4.1 KB of JS, which still seems quite excessive but it's a big improvement for minimal effort on my part.

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Experimental Braised Cabbage

Dylan Leigh — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 06:04:43 GMT

Inspired by the Fallow Chefs' confit caramelized cabbage, I made a vegan braised caramelized cabbage for dinner tonight, with pearl barley and split peas then finished in the stock. The recipe was improvised and not recorded exactly but the results were amazing.

The cabbage came out very sweet and caramelized, like the confit method appears but less buttery. Texture was nice, soft enough that the inner layers could be cut with a fork but not mushy.

I've written up the process below as best I can remember it.

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CO2 Emissions of Most Popular 20 Vehicles in Australia, 2025

Dylan Leigh — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 19:20:36 GMT

Data from NTC's Light Vehicle Emissions Intensity 2025 Report. The data dashboard there contains lots more details including stats based on regions, fuel/powertrain type, market segment, and you can look up individual car models on page 9.

Curtailment, or why Australia can give everyone three hours of free solar power during the day

Dylan Leigh — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:24:13 GMT

I annotated this chart to show the huge gap between the curtailed (wasted) renewable power at midday in Australia and the storage available to make use of it. Hence the recently announced Solar Sharer Scheme, which will give Australians three hours of free power in the middle of the day.

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Microwave Baked Onions in Tomato & Basil Sauce

Dylan Leigh — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 06:04:43 GMT

This is an easy recipe that can be a side dish as half an onion, or the main meal with more halves and the addition of some extra grains/pasta/etc to soak up the sauce. No animal products or gluten required.

Serves 3-6 (half or a whole onion) and costs about AU$2 (as of November 2025).

Based on the "Baked Onions" recipe in an old Family Circle Kids Microwave Cooking book I had as a kid.

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didyouknowthatyoucanhaveonlysixty-threecharactersinadomainlabel.net is moving to didyouknowthatyoucanhaveonlysixty-threecharactersinadomainlabel.dylanleigh.net

Dylan Leigh — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 03:52:48 GMT

To save US$20 per year on a domain name for a 20 year old joke, I'm moving the three sentence index page at http://didyouknowthatyoucanhaveonlysixty-threecharactersinadomainlabel.net/ to a subdomain of this site, http://didyouknowthatyoucanhaveonlysixty-threecharactersinadomainlabel.dylanleigh.net/ . There's a redirect in place at the old site for now, but I'll probably let the domain expire when it is due for renewal.

A plain JS demo of the Monty Hall problem

Dylan Leigh — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 21:24:03 GMT

I haven't used Javascript/ECMAscript much before - did learn the basics in my CompSci undergrad, and used a little JSX when at Kogan, but I was never that into frontend dev stuff. Trying to revise it today, I wrote this JS implementation of the "Let's Make a Deal" game at the center of the "Monty Hall problem".

How to extract an Android APK off an old device and install it to a new one with ADB

Dylan Leigh — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 07:46:10 GMT

The old OpenIntents shopping list app I have used on my Android phones since around 2011 is no longer available on either the Google Play Store or the F-Droid FOSS Android Repository. I've tried several alternatives since getting a new phone earlier this year but much prefer the old OI app so was quite annoyed that it's gone.

After a few months of struggling with inferior alternatives, today I realised I could simply pull the app off an old phone with ADB and put it on the new one.

The Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a commandline tool for debugging Android apps, but can also be used for backups, file transfer from PC to/from phone, a remote shell from PC to phone and other purposes.

Physical Assault stats in Australian States and Territories

Dylan Leigh — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 14:23:02 GMT

Alternative title: How Brad Battin, Sussan Ley and David Crisafulli inspired me to learn Matplotlib at 1am

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Renewable Electricity Curtailment on the NEM Recently

Dylan Leigh — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:15:50 GMT

Electricity Generation, Australian National Energy Market, Friday 26 and Saturday 27 September 2025:

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Little Note re Vegan Egg Substitutes

Dylan Leigh — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 19:04:24 GMT

Most "egg substitutes" only work well for a specific use case of eggs, and not for others. E.g:

Aquafaba (chick pea water) whips up like egg whites and can be used to make sponge cakes, merengues or similar fluffy sweets.
Chia or flaxseed/linseed are a good replacement binder for muffins and denser cakes (and good for fibre and protein too).
Tapioca starch and baking powder can also work to give a bit of leavening for muffins (McKensie brand vegan baking egg subtitute is this).
Ground cashews and/or avocado can be used for some richer desserts like mousses.
Kala Namak, a dark sulphurous salt which adds the smell and flavour of egg yolk, but doesn't add texture like the above stuff.
Tumeric is often used to add a bit of yellow colour to make vegan omelettes and scrambles look like eggs.

I haven't yet seen any subsitutes that are a straight drop in for all purposes of eggs, usually you have to use several depending on the recipe.

Former MP Kathryn Hay given suspended prison term for abuse of former husband

Dylan Leigh — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 19:55:50 GMT

From the ABC news article - excerpts from the victim impact statement:

"The abuse has had long-lasting effects on my mental health," he wrote.

"I struggle to maintain existing relationships, let alone form new ones."

Mr Richardson said he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and described "overwhelming" panic attacks.

"The trauma continues to affect my daily functioning,"

The court also heard Hay was previously convicted of assaulting Mr Richardson, after a member of the public reportedly witnessed Hay slap her then-husband in a carpark and called the police.

Multigrain & Seed Toasted Museli Recipe

Dylan Leigh — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 04:35:00 GMT

I always have some of this on hand to have as breakfast, a quick snack or healthy dessert with yogurt. The seeds provide enough oil for the toasting so there is no need to add more fat, making it much healthier than most store bought muselis with added oil and sugar.

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Articles from drwxr-xr-x.org transferred to dleigh.net

Dylan Leigh — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 16:47:49 GMT

All of the articles from my 2019-2021 blog Readable by all (drwxr-xr-x.org) have been moved to this site, with one exception - the very first "About" post which was about how the new blog format should help me post more frequently, which obviously didn't happen.

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Returning Home(page)

Dylan Leigh — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 11:00:00 GMT

So, no updates for over two years.

I've been very unwell to the point I need assistance to do even basic household tasks like cleaning and preparing meals. Unfortunately I've already used the title "Rumours of my death have been slightly exaggerated" back in 2018, and it wasn't even the last post I had to make on this topic.

While most of my life is a complete mess, I do have a few ideas about being able to actually get some more stuff I've done posted online.

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Disability and Rarity of Updates

Dylan Leigh — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 13:28:36 GMT

Haven't made any updates to this site or my "new" blog in over a year until I cleaned up and posted this biology article a few days ago. Even before then, I hadn't made a post talking about my disabilities and past and how badly it affects my ability to get things done.

This post (originally on the new blog) will explain some of those issues, what I've been up to since last year, and what I might be able to do in the future.

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Forms of Life part 2: Overview of the Phylogenetic Tree of Life and Endosymbiosis

Dylan Leigh — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 16:27:12 GMT

In the first part of this series, I discussed taxonomic terminology such as clades and kingdoms, but didn't go into the actual groups and the lifeforms within them. This article will provide a top-down phylogenetic overview of all lifeforms on Earth, as well as a discussion of how endosymbiosis has provided an alternate path for genetic material and evolution.

Assorted Science Links (March 2020)

Dylan Leigh — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 17:58:41 GMT

The third edition of my monthly pile of science links.

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Assorted Science Links (Feb 2020)

Dylan Leigh — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 09:22:29 GMT

Leap day edition of my monthly science links (aka monthly cleaning out my bookmarks).

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The Delightful Diversity of "Cup" Sizes in UK/US/AU/NZ Cooking

Dylan Leigh — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 02:12:26 GMT

Volumetric measurements (using the volume of a container) are inferior to Gravimetric measurements (i.e. weight) in most ways. Weighing is faster (for a given pareto-optimal degree of accuracy), can achieve greater accuracy, and most importantly there will be less dishes to clean up afterwards.

Most irritatingly, "cups" and "spoons" mean different amounts in different countries. Even worse, sometimes three "thirds" of a cup are less than one cup...

[Updated 2020-03-22: Added cup densities for wheat bran and oat bran]

10 Minute "Meaty" Vegan Moroccan Pilaf

Dylan Leigh — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 14:40:56 GMT

10 minutes cooking time, that is, so to be honest it's about 12-15 minutes total.

This is my usual standby meal because it meats (heh) all my requirements:

High in fibre (wholegrain burgul and veg)
High in protein (soya mince and wholegrains)
Relatively low in calories
Filling meaty taste, but no animal products
Each serve contains two 75g Australian "serves" of vegetables
Only uses non-perishable ingredients, so no need to plan ahead
Faster to make from scratch than to get takeaway
Only uses one pan/pot