They have obscure inside jokes, such as "i liek mudkips" and "pool's closed". They come together in large group events like ROFLcon as well as virtually on sites like 4Chan. They often make the claim that females do not exist within their ranks, though evidence suggests otherwise. They worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Google, and Longcat. They - we - are not a cult, we're the internet… or are we? Wikipedia (say what you will about it, I like it) defines a cult as "a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding population considers to be outside the mainstream." So, do you feel that the internetters fall into that description?

Severe security flaws were found in the kernel for most Ubuntu installs. If you're one of the open-source supporters using Ubuntu versions 6.06 LTS, 7.04, 7.10, or 8.04 LTS it's best to patch. The actual problems are interesting. The flaw opens up the user to a multitude of attacks all of which are listed after the jump.

Big websites have had microformats, which are machine-readable ways of storing data in HTML, for a long time. So far, the only thing I've really seen come of this is a few choice addons which could, for example, add a Facebook user to your Outlook contacts. However, Mozilla has just released some details on a project it calls Ubiquity which blows away all the existing uses.

So, once again the Penny Arcade Expo is this weekend. For those of you who don't know, the event also known as PaX is "the  largest  gaming  festival  in  North  America  representing  tabletop,  console  and PC  gaming." This year it's being held at The Washington State Convention and Trade Center, which is why I mention this. If you're a fan of games and live near Seattle, it's worth the $30 admission for a day. Among other things, we're hoping to get some info on Left For Dead and the new Rock Band games (Guitar Hero, too). There's also going to be a screening of Nerdcore rising as well as performances by Freezepop, Jonathan Coulton, and Freezepop. If you go, be sure to say "Hi" to me (Tyler), I'll be there getting the latest news for ARSON. If you're not going, subscribe to our feed; we'll be liveblogging the whole thing here.

This post is a follow-up to this one. ARSON News is back with new articles, a better forum (chatroom coming soon!), unified login across all services, and some REALLY awesome graphics. While you can't really see it, there's some great new stuff going on in the background, too. We really hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or concerns, as always, don't hesitate to contact me at tmenezes@arson-news.com.