Hey Google. So, you’re teaming up with Verizon to control what we users see and can access on the internet. You’re making a deal so that we pay more for stuff that we are now getting as part of our regular provider fees, so you can do the “premium channel” thing like cable companies.

Guess what. It ain’t gonna fly. Did you get my letter yet? No? Well, I’ve changed my default search engine on all my computers and devices to Bing. Yeah, hard to believe when Microsoft is less evil than Google, isn’t it? And my Gmail account? It’s head is on the chopping block, awaiting your decision to kill the deal with Verizon. It’s not like Gmail is the only portable email provider out there. Google Reader? Don’t need it. Maps? Yeah, Bing does that to, quite well.

I’m also letting my friends know what you’re doing, and encouraging them to do what I’ve done.

Seriously, Google. Don’t be evil.

• Save the Internet (includes form to mail Google CEO in protest)
• Net neutrality imperiled. (MSNBC/Countdown video)

About four years ago, I somehow discovered classic teardrop travel trailers. From what I can tell, they originated in the 1930s or 1940s, and were popular projects in Popular Mechanics and similar magazines. The motherload of current information on building your own is the Tiny Travel Trailers Forum. They guys there are extremely helpful, and they have many different plans you can adapt for your own custom travel trailer.

When I discovered the site, I started planning my own travel trailer for camping, even though I had nowhere special I wanted to go. Since then, I’ve found a campground I really enjoy visiting, and want something more spur-of-the-moment than having to try to reserve a cabin–impossible at the last minute on a busy holiday weekend.

After successfully completing my bar, I decided to go for something bigger, and remembered the teardop camping trailer. So here’s my idea, based on Tiny Travel Trailers’ “Generic Benroy” plans, that I worked up four years ago:

I have some investing to do first: tools, most likely a table saw. I also need to establish a workspace. The bar was built on the patio under the second-story deck. That won’t do for a project this size.

I also need to start budgeting. The plans call for using a pretty generic Harbor Freight 5-ft x 8-ft trailer. The trailer is probably around $500, but is frequently on sale. In all, a rough guess is $1,500 – $2,000 for the finished trailer. Any more than that and I might as well buy one from one of the few manufacturers that still make them.

The plans also call for modifying that trailer by cutting the cross-members to reduce the width by two inches so that the side walls overlap the frame to hide it. That seems like a lot of trouble for what to me is a minor cosmetic issue. I’ll just paint the frame black to match the aluminum skin’s paint job. (Yeah, I don’t know where I’m gonna get that paint job done!)

So, here goes the next big project!

I remember as a child, around dinner time, when the news was on TV there would always be an advertisement for Flint River Marine in nearby Albany, Georgia. The Flint River is large river when it runs through Albany, and just north of Albany it’s dammed to form Lake Blackshear.

Imagine my surprise, when updating the website for work and playing with our embedded Google map, that I cross that very same river every day on the way to work. It’s much smaller, as were only just downstream from the headwaters, but Google Maps says it is indeed the Flint River.

Check it out:

View Larger Map

MSNBC has a report about a couple of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by scammers, who then used it to scam thousands from Facebook “friends.”

For some stupid reason, Facebook makes it very difficult to contact them and even makes it hard to find the “Account Compromised” contact link. So here it is:

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=account_compromised

Anyway, take a look at your account, make sure you have all the right contact info in case you need to verify your account with Facebook staff, and consider updating your password, and make sure you’re using a secure password.