In case anyone is wondering where they can get the latest version of Joomla information which is now scheduled to have a major release every 6 months, the url is http://update.joomla.org/core/list.xml. There is an extension update link as well but that does not seem to be filled in currently at: http://update.joomla.org/jed/list.xml. The latest release of Joomla is 1.7 as of the time of this posting.