Some people think that the convenience of clicking Romney or Obama the same way you buy a song on iTunes could radically increase voter participation. So just what’s stopping online voting? Is it simply a lack of enthusiasm or a problem of bureaucratic red tape? The real reason has a lot more to do with online security and just how easy it would be to hack such an online voting system — or maybe rather how hard it would be to build one that was hack-proof.

There’s a new online scam that might freeze you at your keyboard: Software that for all intents and purposes, threatens to shoot your computer if you don’t pay. The bad guys infect your system and hold it for ransom by locking up your hard drive with encryption. How to protect against it? A familiar line: backup your files! But let’s be honest: how many of us consistently back up our files, really?

A new start up called Lend Up is plunging into a line of work with one of the worst reputations in all of finance. The hope? To transform payday lending. LendUp’s Jake Rosenberg says the inspiration is microlending, which has worked in very poor parts of the world. Today, MIT is starting an outfit dedicated to delivering us from our wireless streaming frustrations. The newly minted Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing is working on a technology called Softcast, and the results for cleaning up choppy online video are pretty impressive.

Here’s an idea: Put kiosks throughout a mall armed with facial recognition cameras that figure out a shopper’s gender and age. The Wall Street Journal says it’s happening now at the International Finance Center Mall in Seoul, South Korea. The system then makes shopping recommendations and will soon generate customized ads.  Add the Taiwanese military to the list of people who think the new maps on Apple phones and tablets need fixing. Authorities there are unhappy with how clearly a secret long-range radar base in Taiwan shows up when you check the location on the iPhone 5. The brass is asking Apple to lower the resolution, that is to say blur it a bit. 

A law student in Texas wants to make a handgun using a device that prints out 3-D objects using melted plastic. Cody Wilson asked people for money online and got $20,000 to try it. His aim is to prototype this so-called “Wiki Weapon” and make the plans freely available to anyone online.  It’s open source weaponry. It’s also a example of how 3-D printing could change society even as it begins to revolutionize manufacturing.

Ever sold or bought used vinyl records at a yard sale? A startup called ReDigi is trying to do the same online, offering to erase your copy and resell the digital music file to someone else. What’s yours, you can resell, right? Turns out, it’s not that simple. ReDigi is now facing a court battle with big music company EMI. The massive online multiplayer game World of Warcraft is being cast by some as a political liability. The Republican Party in the state of Maine has put up a website and issued flyers to let voters know that a Democrat running for state senate likes to play World of Warcraft.

The penalty: $163 million. The crime? Using something called “Scareware.” This particular Internet scam delivers fake popups saying, “you’ve got a virus,” followed by a prompt to solve the problem and clean up your computer with the help of your credit card. Of course, once you’re that far, they’re quite possibly helping you dissassemble your computer’s security system as well. This week, the FTC is continuing a multinational crackdown on this particular kind of scam, shutting off phone lines and cutting off bank accounts.

Crowdsourcing: reaching out to the entire planet in search of talent to solve problems. Many argue crowdsourcing is the job market of the future. A New York startup called VoiceBunny is using the power of the crowd to provide voice-overs for online videos, advertisements, and blog podcasts. While the service aims to lower costs and provide faster turn-around for customers, it may threaten the job model of traditional staff announcers.

With the first presidential debate set for tonight in Denver, a question for you: Remember Texas governor Rick Perry’s brain freeze in a debate during primary season? How did you see it — live on TV or later on your laptop or phone? Recent studies have shown that technology is shaking up the way we consume media. We check in with the online news site Buzzfeed and blogger site Tumblr to find out their plans to cover the debate for today’s digital, instant, and social age.