digital life

Dark patterns are a Canadian legal problem now

4:03 p.m.Claude responded: A puppet on strings — a visual metaphor for manipulation through deceptive design patterns.A puppet on strings; a visual metaphor for manipulation through deceptive design patterns.

Canada’s privacy regulator reviewed 145 Canadian sites in 2024. Ninety-nine percent had at least one dark pattern. Here is what the OPC found and five things to audit on your own.

How to fix a missing WordPress database error after restoring site files

Illustration of a person using a WordPress laptop

You restore your files from a backup and they come back, wp-config.php and all. Then you go to restore the database and it isn’t there. Your backup isn’t gone. Deleting the site removed the database container, so there’s nothing for the backup system to map your history to. Rebuild the container and the backup reappears. … Read more

3 Canadian typefaces every designer should know

Illustrated portraits of Canadian type designers Carl Dair, Rod McDonald, and Raymond Larabie

Three homegrown Canadian typefaces, three different stories. One set a constitution. One became a design-industry standard. One rewired what a national typeface is supposed to do.

When written words punch down

Illustration of a frustrated office professional next to an incoming email, symbolizing passive-aggressive workplace communication.

Some workplace phrases sound professional. They aren’t. “Per my last email” and “as previously stated” are just hidden anger dressed up in corporate code.

What Bill C-34 would change for Canadians online

A child looks down at a smartphone held in both hands.

Canada introduced Bill C-34 on June 10. It would bar children under 16 from social media accounts, require platforms to design for child safety, and regulate AI chatbots for the first time.