In the span of just 48 hours this week, two separate juries in two different US states delivered verdicts that could reshape the entire social media industry — not because of the dollar amounts involved, but because of what those verdicts legally establish for the first time. On Tuesday, March 24, a jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. Less than 24 hours later, on Wednesday, March 25, a jury in Los Angeles found both Meta and Google (YouTube) liable for engineering addiction in young users — finding them negligent in the design of their platforms and awarding a further $6 million in damages. Two days. Two states. Two juries. Both pointing at the same conclusion: that Big Tech can no longer hide behind the legal shields it has relied on for nearly three decades. This is the story of what happened, why it matters far beyond the headline numbers, and what comes next for the s...
Hey there, homesteader! If you're a FrontierVille fan, you're going to need this guide. Why? Well, one of the surprising things about FrontierVille is that it's got no place for players to see or display their achievements. Most games supply a way for players to proudly display, and keep track of, in-game milestones. These could come in the form of ribbons (FarmVille), medals (Happy Aquarium), statues (Pet Society), etc. Without this future knowledge, you can't anticipate tasks, so you can't plan ahead to make sure you've got everything you need. In FrontierVille, achievements are called "Goals", and they seem to appear and disappear like the wind. Sometimes, there can be as many as three goals at once. Sometimes, until you clear one goal, you can't see what the next one may be. Some goals can only be completed through sheer chance. Another annoyance is that you could complete a task, but be forced into a do-over, just because you did it before the...