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What do the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune have in common? They all require you to divulge personal information (like name, address, phone number and ethnicity) before reading their stories online.

Some newspapers ask for more information than others. Some require registration only for certain stories. But mandatory registration is rapidly becoming the norm.

Registration is a way to generate revenue, according to Dwight Silverman, online news editor for HoustonChronicle.com.

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On April 3, students in a graduate do-it-yourself supercomputer class at the University of San Francisco will link together more than thousand personal computers. They want the DIY network to qualify as one of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers, even if it will live for only a day.

To come up with the requisite number of PC's, the students will rely on the concept of a "flash mob." Twelve hundred flash mobbers are expected to bring their PCs to the school gym.

Greg Benson, associate professor of computer science at USF, says the project grew out of a desire to get supercomputers into the hands of people who don't normally have access to them.

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More and more consumers are making phone calls that are routed through the Internet rather than existing telephone networks. Internet calls are generally cheaper, but have been less reliable, and often don't sound as good.

Governments are concerned they will lose billions of dollars in revenue as consumers abandon heavily regulated and taxed telephone networks. They also want to insure that the Internet telephone industry provides effective 9-1-1 service, and provides law enforcement with wiretapping capabilities.

The Voice Over Internet Coalition, which includes Microsoft, Intel, Texas Instruments and AT&T, has announced a new lobbying campaign designed to fend off government regulation of the burgeoning industry. The coalition says Washington and state governments threaten to stifle innovation.

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Activists in two states seek an alternative to electronic voting machines before their upcoming primaries.

In Maryland, a citizens group called the Campaign for Verifiable Voting is asking election officials to provide paper ballots alongside e-voting machines in the state's upcoming primary,to be held March 2nd. The group is concerned that computerized balloting is prone to fraud, and may not count votes accurately.

Meanwhile, the California Voter Foundation, a non-profit voter education group, is urging state residents to vote by absentee ballot, a method that uses paper.

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The United States wants to develop new weapons technologies that go beyond the never-realized "Star Wars" defense system proposal. In a recent story for Wired News, Noah Shachtman reports on a a recent planning document (PDF) from the U.S. Air Force that shows how the United States plans to step up the militarization of space.

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Forrester Research says U-S companies will export more than 3 million service and technology jobs by 2015. H.M. Hervey is steaming mad about that. Hervey says he's pro-business, that he's not a protectionist, and that he's never been personally affected by so-called "offshoring." But the 56 year-old director of sales at a Silicon Valley software company believes the export of engineering, programming and tech support jobs to India and other countries could seriously hurt America.

So he's organized a group called SaveUSjobs.Biz to engage business leaders on the issue, and to cajole and embarrass them if necessary.

UPDATE: CNET News.com reports that Senator Chris Dodd has introduced a bill to fight offshore outsourcing:

"This week Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) introduced legislation
seeking to ban offshore outsourcing in three areas of government
work: privatizing of federal work, federal purchase of goods and
services, and state government procurements using federal funds."
Link.

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SearchEngineWatch recently named Google its "Outstanding Search Service" for the past year. It won most other awards, too, including "Best Design." But it wasn't a total sweep, and SearchEngineWatch associate editor Chris Sherman says Google is far from invincible.

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During his day, Aristotle was known for deep knowledge about all scientific disciplines, and his ability to teach science. Vulcan, Inc., the venture capital arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is funding a long-term project to develop a computer program that might eventually serve as an Aristotle for our times. The goal is to develop computers that can answer scientific questions they've never heard before, and show the reasoning behind their answers. It's called Project Halo, and in one early test, it was able to correctly answer three out of five questions taken from an advanced placement chemistry exam.

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In a recent edition of the New York Times Magazine, journalist Clive Thompson profiled several computer virus writers who live to demonstrate security holes in Microsoft software. Thompson says this is a different group from the criminal element that write the most destructive viruses and worms, such as SoBig.

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Talk to any teenager, and chances are they've tuned in to HomestarRunner or the Spongemonkeys on the 'Net. These are two examples of online animation -- cartoons that range from the crudely drawn to the professionally rendered. Some are mild, some bawdy, and most are a little weird. The Houston Chronicle's Dwight Silverman says his 12 and 16 year-old daughters have all but given up TV in favor of online animation.

To view lots of animation, go here.

And of course, you will want to see the dancing Badgers.

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A new study from the George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet looks at the influence of "online political citizens" -- the kind of people who fueled the Howard Dean presidential campaign. The study found that these people are much more influential in their communities than others.

The study defines online political citizens as people who have visited a candidate or political party Web site, and done at least two of the following: contributed to a campaign, received or forwarded email from a campaign, participated in a political Weblog or discussion group, or visited a news Web site for political information.

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Meetup is the community-building Internet service made famous by followers of Governor Howard Dean and other presidential candidates. During this campaign season, thousands of citizens have logged on to Meetup.com to find like-minded people in their towns and arranged face-to-face meetings to discuss and promote their favorite politicians.

But Meetups are not only for the politically minded. You can find groups that get together over a cup of coffee or a beer to talk about quilting, Oprah Winfrey, paganism, Wi-Fi technology, and thousands of other topics.

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Howard Dean harnessed the power of the Internet like no presidential candidate before him. His tools included an e-mail list of two million people, an Internet-fueled fundraising campaign that took in more money in one year than any Democratic candidate in history, an army of Webloggers singing his praises, and Meetups, where like-minded netizens formed ad hoc pro-Dean groups.

But Dean has fared poorly in the primaries and caucuses, leading some cynics to conclude that maybe the 'net isn't such a powerful political tool after all.

Former Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi will have none of that. In a speech at the Digital Democracy Teach-In in San Diego this week, the architect of Dean's Internet strategy said fearful competitors and the media saw to it that the grassroots Internet groundswell was crushed.

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In a research project called Penny Black (named after one of the first postage stamps that charged senders instead of recipients) Microsoft is looking at forcing spammers' computers to solve a computational puzzle for each e-mail they send. It's a way to pin a cost on e-mail without involving money, said Cynthia Dwork, Microsoft senior researcher.

Listen to Richard Gingras, president and CEO of Goodmail Systems, a Silicon Valley start-up that's developing a postage system for mass e-mailers.

Dwight Silverman phoned in his thoughts (Real Audio) on the office raid of Sharman Networks, maker of the Kazaa P2P client.

Would you like to rant? Drop me a line.

Days after researchers said a plan to let soldiers and other Americans living overseas vote over the Internet is inherently insecure, the Pentagon has cancelled the program.

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E-mail postage, a radical proposal for stopping unsolicited commercial e-mail, appears to be gaining traction. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has endorsed the idea of charging e-mailers a small per-message fee, and Internet service provider Yahoo! is investigating the idea.

Sonia Arrison, director of technology studies at the Pacific Research Institute, says e-mail postage may be the best way to make spamming unprofitable.

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Wireless 411 is in the works.

A consortium of wireless carriers is working to create a mobile phone directory, as are several independent companies.

While it'll nice to be able to look up mobile phone numbers in a directory, there could be privacy implications.

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When the Minnesota Orchestra heads to Europe for 12 performances later this month, they will give their young fans a chance to come along -- sort of. The orchestra will maintain a virtual online tour along the way. It's geared toward students, but will give fans of any age a look behind the scenes of the trip. We talk with Mele Willis, the Minnesota Orchestra's manager of outreach and education. (Jeff Horwich guest-hosts.)

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Maybe your e-mail inbox today looks a little like mine:

"[SPAM] - returned mail"
"Postmaster: Mail cannot be delivered"
"The infected attachment has been deleted"

This extra junk probably has a lot to do with the MyDoom computer worm, still spreading around the globe a week after it first showed up.

One version of MyDoom is programmed to attack Microsoft. Starting today, computers with the virus will start bombarding Microsoft's web servers with requests for information, with the intent of shutting them down. It's what's called a "denial of service" attack. The company put out a $250,000 reward last week for information leading to the creators of the Microsoft MyDoom. We talk with Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall. (Jeff Horwich guest-hosts.)

Also today, a MyDoom limerick, courtesy of an inspired FT listener:

I heard of a monster, "MyDoom"
And though it crawled into my room
I never opened that worm
Yet I did watch it squirm
As I buried it in an E-tomb.

We found a little more computer related poetry out there. Got some of your own? E-mail us, or leave your comments below.

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For the current issue of Esquire, writer Tom Chiarella stayed with a group of young men in Memphis whose lives revolve around video games. In addition to Chiarella's article, the group has been featured in an MTV documentary. Chiarella describes the apartment of the so-called "Order of Light" -- sparsely furnished, shades drawn, stocked only with pizza and Coke. A jungle of cords covers the carpet in every room. (Jeff Horwich guest-hosts.)

You can also listen to the full interview with Tom Chiarella (about 10 minutes long).