From there the book becomes more of a historical narrative, albeit a very interesting one. Alfred was the fifth son of Æthelwulf, king of Wessex. We learn about Alfred’s formative years as the Vikings begin to attack various nations that made up Britain in the early 900’s, specifically the nation of Wessex. It was during these years that Alfred made two pilgrimages to Rome with his family. He received confirmation from Pope Leo IV during his first visit.

Alfred became known as a fierce fighter in the battles with the Vikings and after the death of his four elder brothers, he became king of Wessex. The book chronicles many of the battles and an especially low time of his life when he was forced to flee and remain in hiding from the Danish invaders until he could muster enough troops to retake his throne. It was during these years that Alfred would lead bands of men in ambush of various Viking troops and he learned much of their tactics.

The Vikings were especially brutal to to the conquered king. They would offer the defeated king in various forms of sacrifice to their god Odin. However when Alfred defeated the Viking Guthram and his army, instead of killing him, he gave Guthram the option to be baptized as a Christian. Guthram accepted this offer and was baptized and never again attacked Alfred or the kingdom of Wessex.

When Alfred retook the throne, in his most significant and lasting achievement, he completely reorganized the military structure. Instead of a disorganized band of nobles and landowners called up to fight as needed, he instituted a professional, trained standing army.

Alfred also saw the need for the people to become literate, able to read and advance in Christian learning. He brought together the best scholars he could find to help him learn Latin and then assist him in translating many texts into the vernacular of the Anglo Saxons. He established schools for the children to start learning as soon as they were able. Literacy was required for anyone serving in any form of government office.

Lastly, Alfred instituted a reworking of the entire legal code. The legal system when Alfred became king was based more on the station of the claimants in a case than anything else. “[T]he composition of the [legal code] really constituted the culmination of Alfred’s work to rebuild the defenses of Wessex and to revive learning throughout the nation.” In doing so, Alfred established the framework for what would be known as “common law,” the foundation for the legal systems of England, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Pakistan. Interestingly enough, the code began with the Ten Commandments and included parts of Exodus 21-23 and the Sermon on the Mount all in the preface.

I read this as part of Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger Program.

Each day has a short entry about one patriot with brief details to whet your appetite for more research if you find yourself interested. You’ll also find a list of other historical events for the day. Interspersed between the months are various items too large for a single day, such as the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution to name a few.

I have really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with any interest at all in the history of our nation.

I read this as part of Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger Program.

Abort pclzip.lib.php : Missing zlib extensions

After some searching around (remember, in cases such as this, Google is your friend), I found a link to an ongoing discussion regarding this issue.  Bottom line, there is a fix in the pipe to be released, but it’s still in “proposed” status.  To get it you need to edit your sources list:

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

Once you’ve opened the file, add the following two lines:

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

Save the file, then execute:

sudo aptitude update

Once you’ve done this, go to System->Administration->Update Manager, run the update, and viola, no more zlib error!

I read this as part of Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger Program.

What are our chances of upgrading from XP to 7?  Early tests indicate that they are not so good, regardless of Microsoft’s assurances that all will be ok.  The “preferred” upgrade path from XP to 7, per Microsoft, is through Vista.  Regardless of the obvious profit motivation for Microsoft to push this path, older hardware just doesn’t make the transition well.

So what do those of us with older hardware do?  In this economy, very few of us can afford to invest in new hardware just to be ready for the latest version of Windows, and if history is any indicator, support for XP will be going away.  We are either going to have to risk running an old (and soon to be) unpatched OS, or we’re going to have to invest in new hardware to run Windows 7.  At least, these are the only options Microsoft wants you to have.

If you have the ability to invest in new hardware, it’s time to look at a Mac.  I’ve never had the opportunity to own a Mac due to cost, but I have used one on occasion and it’s really nice.  The underlying OS is rock-solid and the interface is user-friendly.  If you can afford it, this is definitely the way to go.

But if you’re like me, new hardware just isn’t in the budget.  What to do?  In addition to the Windows machines, I also have two running Ubuntu Linux.  It used to be that if you used Linux you were definitely a computer geek, because of all the gymnastics you had to go through to get it running.  But these days it’s different.  You can (legally) download an installation CD for Ubuntu Linux (or another distro, if you want) and boot from the CD to see how well it works with your hardware.

I have installed linux on several machines over the years, and the latest installations setup everything I’ve needed out of the box.  Graphics cards, wireless, everything.  Not only that, you also get several choices of office software comparable to MS Office.  I sync my Blackberry Curve, watch movies, listen to music, basically everything I can do with Windows.  All for the cost of a blank CD.

I had to stop and think about that one for a bit.  I was raised to be a conformist, for sure, and I was good at it.  I still struggle with it, even at times when I know I should speak up.  Do I really want my kids to just behave, or do I want them to think counterculturally, willing to question the group mentality?  Certainly I want them to “behave,” but in that questioning, they may not always do things the way I want them to.  What would that look like to instill in them a Christian identity where they may even question me, but their overall worldview is more like Christ?

If work with kids in any way, whether your own or not, you should really listen to the podcast.

Blackberry

Research in Motion released notification of a new vulnerability in the Blackberry Application Web Loader Active-X Control. Information week stated in an article:

The vulnerability can be resolved by installing an updated version of the BlackBerry Application Web Loader. The RIM Web site also includes a workaround that describes how to disable the affected ActiveX control.

I would offer a much better resolution: just say “NO!” to using Internet Explorer and use a real browser instead.