Tom Karlo - Karlo.Org

No Parking

In December 2008, I built isalternatesideparkingineffect.com over the course of a weekend, on a whim. It was a nice little Rails project with a cleanly defined use case. Initially just a one-page web site, it soon added a daily email blast and a twitter feed so folks could get their parking information.

Since then, we've delivered over 15 million emails to an average of 10,000 subscribers, and the site's been featured in The New York Times. Not bad for a weekend project.

But it's time to move on. Back when I started the site, the New York City Department of Transportation was still communicating parking status the old-fashioned way, mostly by notifying local mass media. Today, you can sign up for email updates, check the 311 web site, or follow the official Twitter feed. (Ironically, the logo for the official NYC Parking twitter account seems to have come from my feed.)

Given the city's online progress, there just isn't as much of a place for a one-man service to add value. As of June 1, 2013, I plan to shut down my service, archive the server, and turn it off for good. Thanks to everyone who subscribed all these years, and best of luck finding your next parking spot!

New Adventures

Just had a beer with an old friend of mine who tomorrow morning will quit his job at a publicly-traded Internet company to strike out and start a new business. Not only do I wish him good luck, I must admit a bit of jealousy. There's nothing quite like that moment when you throw caution to the wind and strike out for unknown shores. No matter how it turns out you are almost always the richer for taking the risk and discomfort it entails.

A Quick Personal Update

I realized today that it's a month since I've put up a post here. That's partially because Twitter and Facebook suck away a good portion of content I would previously have shared here, and it's partially because it's just been a crazy month on every front. I'm still getting used to Los Angeles. The weather's finally turning into the spectacular warm weather folks in the Northeast imagine when thinking of this city... Heading out to the beach for a few hours of volleyball on a Saturday afternoon is fantastic, and I can tell it's going to be beautiful at night soon as well. Work has been all about change - I'm still managing the team I came to Amazon to work with, but I'm also helping run a much larger service for them as well now. The transition has been involved - it's always hard to take over a product or service that's several years old, with all its little quirks, corners and eccentricities. Right now, I'm just trying to get caught up; once I've got a handle on things, I'll be able to spend more time figuring out how to improve and update it.

Mochi Does Laundry

"Video or it didn't happen"... the dog does this almost every night if he's left alone in the house and the closet door is open.

IsAlternateSideParkingInEffect.com Featured in the NYT

My single-serving web site, IsAlternateSideParkingInEffect.com was featured in the New York Times Blog this morning.

Alternate side of the street parking, which was introduced by the city in 1952 to facilitate street cleaning, is one of the more burdensome rituals of New York City life...

So how to keep track of the state of the parking regulations, especially since so many of the holidays are set by a lunar calendar, and thus vary each year?

Howto: Building a Mac Mini Home Media Center

Out here in LA I tend to watch less television than I did before, view more feature-length films (especially because I'm working on projects related to the industry) and drive a whole lot more. Last week I had my high speed modem installed, but I decided not to subscribe to cable television, which saves me about $100 a month in service fees. Instead, I'm going to try using a Mac Mini, along with a number of parts and accessories, as a home media center that depends on the Internet, and eventually Over-the-Air (OTA) digital broadcast television, to satisfy my video entertainment needs. I want the system to take care of the following tasks: - Play from streaming media sites such as Hulu and Netflix - Play DVDs and downloaded video from services like iTunes - Play edited HD home movies to the television, in HD - Provide an easy-to-use interface to my MP3 collection and streaming audio online I also require that it:

• Be stable as a rock. Never crash. I want continuous uptime measured in months, broken only by the need to restart to install a system update.
• Have minimum maintenance and upkeep - this in particular is why I am using a Mac over Windows, it reduces update hassles and hardware compatibility headaches. I want an appliance, in essence, not another system to babysit.
• Be quiet. No loud fans - I'm looking at you, Xbox 360.
• Conserve energy. At 13 watts, the Mini burns far less power than my Tivo HD and Cable Box used to. As I work my way through the process, I'll continue to extend this post with relevant information and links to the parts and software I'm using.

Westward Ho: I'm Moving to Los Angeles

I'm excited to announce that as of the start of August, I'll be moving to Los Angeles to pursue a management job at a subsidiary of Amazon.Com, within their IMDB business. It's a great team and I'm looking forward to joining. I'll provide more information about the new role down the road in a separate post. Years ago, a successful entrepreneur told me that you have to be willing to chase the best opportunities wherever they may be. He said it was hard enough to find the right deal without limiting yourself in terms of location. At least this time, I'm following that advice. I expect that for some folks who know me personally, my leaving New York City will be a surprise. I was born in Manhattan and have spent most of my three decades here, with some short stints in Boston for school and work. I still absolutely love "The City" and my move has nothing to do with any change of heart about The Island at the Center of the World. It will always be home for me.

At the same time, LA will mean a lot of new opportunities for me not only professionally, but outside of work as well. New places and people to photograph, a ton of new weekend trip / road trip destinations, and a chance to maybe get out mountain biking regularly, something I've been saying I'd do here in New York for the better part of a decade now but have never managed to make happen. I'll even finally have to own a car, for the first time in my life. It should be interesting. So, if you're in LA, or life takes you there sometime in August or later, let me know and we'll get a beer or coffee somewhere you can see the ocean. I'm looking forward to it. (Photo from Shorpy.)

Hey, It's Friday.

Allie and Marissa

Allie and Marissa, originally uploaded by karlo.

Taken before Allie's birthday party at Antarctica, down in the Village.

At Friday's Times Open Event

IMG_5086, originally uploaded by Times Open.

So there's about 4 photos of me at the event, and I think I'm staring into my laptop in 2 of them (I'd point out this one was taken _between_ speakers.) In my defense, everyone else in the shots is staring at the ir laptops too.