I got the impression that all the humans in the Matrix were assimilated by Smith. By the time of the final showdwon between him and Neo, Matrix-Earth was basically a planet of Smiths; he'd been replicating himself exponentially. This is a convenient way for the Wachowskis to avoid the ugly reality of having Zion's residents deal with a few hundred million unwilling "freed minds" and the never-before-used but very hungry mouths that come with them.
No it isn't - every outcome you listed results in pricier CDs and concert tickets and more radio advertising. You're probably savvy enough to skirt those issues, but is your little brother/sister?
You going to shows means more to an artist financially than album sales. This applies at every level; the Rolling Stones and I both have to tour to break even.
I run a small label with decent sales, international distribution, and a solid fan base. Costs are kept low, and our profile is relatively high, but we still lose money on every release. The only way to recoup is to go out and play live regularly for a year or so after each release.
On tour you sell discs direct, get a $ guarantee and a cut of the door receipts (usually). We make about $.80 on a CD sold in a store, and about $2.50 on one sold at a show.
I love it when people download our tracks, but I won't ever make a living off that. Going to shows is the best way to support your favorite artists. Labels bankroll tours as a sop to artists; the Dixie Chicks are free to pocket as much as they can selling schwag on the road (as long as they service their label debt in the process). And if you've downloaded tracks and want to buy a release, do it at the gig whenever possible. That's paying the artist, and not the VP of A&R.
IMPORTANT - READ CAREFULLY: This Matrix Interactive End-User License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement between your inert, artificially sustained body and Matrix Dynasystems Unlimited for the Matrix Man-animal Life Support System(SM) and Global Society Sim-u-riffic(TM) interactive software product(s), which may include associated media, printed materials, and "online" or electronic brainwave manipulation ("SOFTWARE PRODUCT"). By being born, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA.
(Disclaimer: I'm not anti-environmentalist. Just the opposite, actually. I just think soft-core things like Gaia theory and other vaguely anti-human lines of knee-jerk environmentalist thinking - with their sticky, regressive sentimentality and stubborn ignorance of the facts of biology & other sciences - hurts environmentalism more than it helps it. End of rant.)
But we are a function of this planet; we are part of this nature from which you seem to want to distinguish us. Our actions are as much a part of nature as any other organism's actions. We affect nature only in the ways nature has permitted us the capacity. If we wipe out ourselves - and most of Earth's biodiversity in the process - then it'll just be one more of nearly a dozen mass extinctions that Earth has indifferently endured since life emerged.
(There was far more turmoil for dear crotchety ol' Ma Nature before life even arose. Have a gander at our pock-marked moon for more on this late-breaking story.)
Bacteria have effectively ruled this planet for hundreds of millions of years. Seems just as likely to me that we're serving the (unconscious, surely) ends of this particular specimen as it does that it's serving ours.
Just realize that you absolutely will not get it right the first five or six times. You'll have to go through several do-nothing, do-little, or do-crap-you-hate jobs before you discover what's right for you. There's no royal road to job satisfaction, especially in programming.
Slashdot Mirror
I got the impression that all the humans in the Matrix were assimilated by Smith. By the time of the final showdwon between him and Neo, Matrix-Earth was basically a planet of Smiths; he'd been replicating himself exponentially. This is a convenient way for the Wachowskis to avoid the ugly reality of having Zion's residents deal with a few hundred million unwilling "freed minds" and the never-before-used but very hungry mouths that come with them.
No it isn't - every outcome you listed results in pricier CDs and concert tickets and more radio advertising. You're probably savvy enough to skirt those issues, but is your little brother/sister?
You going to shows means more to an artist financially than album sales. This applies at every level; the Rolling Stones and I both have to tour to break even.
I run a small label with decent sales, international distribution, and a solid fan base. Costs are kept low, and our profile is relatively high, but we still lose money on every release. The only way to recoup is to go out and play live regularly for a year or so after each release.
On tour you sell discs direct, get a $ guarantee and a cut of the door receipts (usually). We make about $.80 on a CD sold in a store, and about $2.50 on one sold at a show.
I love it when people download our tracks, but I won't ever make a living off that. Going to shows is the best way to support your favorite artists. Labels bankroll tours as a sop to artists; the Dixie Chicks are free to pocket as much as they can selling schwag on the road (as long as they service their label debt in the process). And if you've downloaded tracks and want to buy a release, do it at the gig whenever possible. That's paying the artist, and not the VP of A&R.
(preamble:)
IMPORTANT - READ CAREFULLY: This Matrix Interactive End-User License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement between your inert, artificially sustained body and Matrix Dynasystems Unlimited for the Matrix Man-animal Life Support System(SM) and Global Society Sim-u-riffic(TM) interactive software product(s), which may include associated media, printed materials, and "online" or electronic brainwave manipulation ("SOFTWARE PRODUCT"). By being born, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA.
he's STILL talking!
(Disclaimer: I'm not anti-environmentalist. Just the opposite, actually. I just think soft-core things like Gaia theory and other vaguely anti-human lines of knee-jerk environmentalist thinking - with their sticky, regressive sentimentality and stubborn ignorance of the facts of biology & other sciences - hurts environmentalism more than it helps it. End of rant.)
But we are a function of this planet; we are part of this nature from which you seem to want to distinguish us. Our actions are as much a part of nature as any other organism's actions. We affect nature only in the ways nature has permitted us the capacity. If we wipe out ourselves - and most of Earth's biodiversity in the process - then it'll just be one more of nearly a dozen mass extinctions that Earth has indifferently endured since life emerged. (There was far more turmoil for dear crotchety ol' Ma Nature before life even arose. Have a gander at our pock-marked moon for more on this late-breaking story.) Bacteria have effectively ruled this planet for hundreds of millions of years. Seems just as likely to me that we're serving the (unconscious, surely) ends of this particular specimen as it does that it's serving ours.
Just realize that you absolutely will not get it right the first five or six times. You'll have to go through several do-nothing, do-little, or do-crap-you-hate jobs before you discover what's right for you. There's no royal road to job satisfaction, especially in programming.