Gregory Heller

Author: gregoryheller

  • The High Cost of publicly financed muni elections

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    gregoryheller

    <p>[l:http://www.observer.com/thepoliticker/2005/11/campaign-finance-musings.html|The Politicker] has a good piece on [l:http://www.observer.com/thepoliticker/2005/11/campaign-finance-musings.html|The NYC Campaign Finance System] which provides generous matching funds for participating candidates. It consists of an emai from Molly Watkins at Glover Park Group (she was spokeswoman for the CFB).:<br /> <Cite>The real problem is at the Council level, where incumbents are taking huge payouts to face…

  • Open Document Format and Open Data Formats

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    gregoryheller
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    Big guns in the software industry are massing behind OpenDocument as government customers show more interest in open-source alternatives to Microsoft’s desktop software. Oh how those words (from a CNET/NYT article last week) danced across the screen to my delight! I have been waiting for, and wondering when(and even nudging in the case of the…

  • Category 7: The End of Good TV

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    gregoryheller

    <p>CBS has a made for TV movie on right now called "Category 7: The End of The World" it is the worst kind of television– the worst kind of "entertainment" ever created. Not only is it alarmist, and opportunistic (coming 10 weeks after Katrina), it isn't even good TV. The writing is horrible, the acting…

  • Thoughts on the Sifry Postmortem of the Rasiej Campaign

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    gregoryheller

    <p>[l:http://micah.sifry.com/2005/11/rasiej_campaign.html|Micah Sifry recently published a very honest postmortem of the failed Rasiej campaign for public advocate in NYC.] I read it and added my thoughts and comments in the text that follows. I quoted liberally for context, but I would encourage folks to read teh entire postmortem.</p> <p>Andrew Rasiej ran an unconventional Internet-driven campaign for…

  • Friendster? Spamster?

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    gregoryheller
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    Friendster caught some flack recently for “re-invitingâ€? people who had not responded to previous invites from their friends. The temptation is strong to abuse email addresses of people who have not opted in to your site or list. Friendster spokesman Jeff Roberto called this a misconception. “We’re not in the business of spamming,” he said.…

  • Burried under email? Not Me.

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    gregoryheller
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    “You have to be smart about how you use e-mail,” said David Strom, editor in chief of Tom’s Hardware Guide, a technology review Web site. “Otherwise you let it ruin your life.” This recent article from the New York Times struck me. As a virtual worker who interacts with my coworkers, clients and other business…

  • Live Blogging the Daily Show

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    gregoryheller

    <p>Rob Cordry, live from Paris "It has been 12 days fo riots and the question is: How much longer can this go on before the french government surrendors?"</p> <p>These guys are brilliant. </p> <p>If you bitorrent one episode of The Daily Show this year, this is it! Or you can watch it repeated every other…

  • "The West Wing" is Brillaint

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    gregoryheller

    <p>[l:http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing|“The West Wing”] is brilliant. Sunday's episode [l:http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing/episode_guide/143.shtml|“The Debate”] was a live debate between the two presidential candidates Matt Santos and Arnie Vinick. What made this episode brilliant, besides the wonderful acting, and the only 2 commercial breaks, was that the candidates tossed the absurd debate rules at the beginning of the debate. And for…

  • Campaigning with Cartoons

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    gregoryheller

    <p>Some cartoons nail it. While others don't. In 2004 we saw the first powerful use of campaign cartoon animation with JibJab's "This Land" which lampooned both Bush and Kerry.</p> <p>Earlier this week, Nyc Democratic Mayoral Candidate Freddy Ferrer launched a [l:http://images1.istandfor.com/images/FE/chain182siteType8/site141/client/buddies.mov|cartoon ad]. It is one of the ones that doesn't work. This ad (it is…

  • Bloombucks asks: "Do I look Obscene?"

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    gregoryheller

    <p><img src="http://static.flickr.com/24/57327956_ddf827b771.jpg" width="500" /><br /> I am a bit disenchanted about the NYC mayoral race. Not the matchup I had hoped for, to be honest. But when the Ferrer Campaign called me up on Thursday asking if I could get Mega Bloombucks to come to a press conference about Mike Bloomberg's rediculous campaign spending, I…