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Angry Jesus writes:
There is a lot of snake oil in the audiophile world. A few years ago the pseudonymous NwAvGuy decided to do something about it. Not content to just criticize the hucksters, he designed a $130 headphone amp that competes with $1000 models. NwAvGuy released the design under the Creative Commons CC BY-ND license (attribution, no derivatives) and freely collaborated on revising it with multiple manufacturers looking to build and sell the amp. All he wanted was credit and to see that no one would take his design and degrade it with inferior modifications.
Then he disappeared. "In July 2012, NwAvGuy went silent. E-mails weren't returned, and blog posting ceased. 'He had gone quiet before -- for a month or so,' says Boudreau. But no one has heard a peep from NwAvGuy in more than a year and a half."
Since then some of the parts used in the last revision have been discontinued and one of the best values in high fidelity audio can't be manufactured anymore because NwAvGuy is no longer around to approve any changes.
(Score: 2) by hatta on Wednesday March 26 2014, @03:03PM
I think on SN you all know how after working with some programmers for awhile the code they work on acquires a certain smell and you an tell at a glance who wrote certain code, and its kinda the same way with analog EE stuff. Its unconscious and takes some effort to explain why you know its so-and-so's design but you can tell at a glance. Like art, or music.
Birders have a similar concept. Just through a glimpse of a bird's motion, an experienced birder can identify it. They call it "jizz". Not kidding.