something is terribly wrong with this cookbook in it's present state. you can almost never install an alternative version of java once a machine is provisioned once with this book. this addresses my issues with the openjdk install and update recipes.
merging metadata
moving run time parameters into default recipe. without doing this, or moving the parameters out of the default you cannot change the node[:java][:openjdk_packages] in a recipe.
oops in the version
fixing metadata, and merging to master
Merge pull request #95 from mylons/master

fixes update-alternatives for openjdk installs