It's interesting to me how frequently on HN I read about people using their formidable technical expertise to pursue projects with really impractical and anachronistic technology, whether it's this project, or retrofitting some really old laptop with scarcely any processing power, or whatever. I understand the impulse to reject practicality and not let "the market" or merely pragmatic considerations dictate one's creative/intellectual impulses. But there is also something perverse about devoting so much brainpower and energy to these kinds of niche projects, which seem almost like a sort of performance art or a thought experiment made real. I find it kind of appealing, but also kind of odd.