Joe's Random Ramblings

In a recent conversation, a colleague wondered where the Windows 7 rock formation landscape wallpaper was taken. The picture itself (C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Landscapes\img7.jpg) only credits the photographer, and shows that it is a stock image from Getty Images.
Browsing through the Getty Images website, I came across this picture.
Same exact location, but different photographer.
And this is the actual picture used in Windows 7.
The pictures show where they were taken: The Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness in Arizona, near Page, AZ. The Wave, what somebody suggested as location, is part of the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.

And once more, the zombie TSG, aka The SCO Group, has lost in court.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has confirmed the earlier jury decision in a lower court.
SCO doesn't own the Unix copyrights, period.
This should be the last stake to permanently kill the SCO zombie.

20 years ago today, Linus Torvalds posted the first message about this new operating system he was writing.
Linux has come a very long way from these humble beginnings.
Nowadays, it powers everything from phones (Android) to mainframes. Whole companies rely on Linux, and probably wouldn't exist in their current form if it wasn't for Linux (e.g., Google.)
Thanks, Linus Torvalds, for this awesome OS.

Some time back, I wrote a post about an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education regarding shady diploma mills exploiting visa loopholes.
That investigation was triggered by the raid of the particularly brazen diploma mill Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, CA, in January.
The "University of Northern Virginia", one of the institutions that got prominently featured in the Chronicle article from March now got raided by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and faces likely closure as well.
There are a few more such brazen diploma mills waiting to get raided...

Update: It seems that at least some of these diploma mills have threatened legal action against forums and blogs reporting about them. See, e.g., here. I haven't received any such threat (yet), but I will continue to call any non-accredited institution a diploma mill.

Update:
According to http://watchdog.org/95968/university-of-northern-virginia-forced-to-close-leaving-students-in-limbo/, this fake university is now forced to close.
About time.
From the article:

The University of Northern Virginia should soon receive a cease and desist letter forcing the campus to close immediately, leaving students unsure if their credits are transferable.
The State Council for Higher Education in Virginia revoked the university?s license to operate Tuesday based on the school?s inability to regain accreditation.

As CNet and Groklaw have documented, Sun Microsystem's then CEO Jonathan Schwartz was ok with Google using Java in Android, even without Google paying licensing fees.
This throws a big wrench into Oracle's (who bought Sun Microsystems) efforts to extract fees from Google...
I am sure Larry Ellison is fuming right now