Sometimes things we do to give us pleasure have no obvious purpose beyond giving a sense of satisfaction.  When asked why, I often respond “Because I can!”

For Example

For multimedia viewing I have set up a playstation, boxi-box, raspberry pi, apple tv, dnla server, qnap media centre and a chromecast.  All of these devices do essentially the same thing, albeit the configuration and specific functional details differ.

I also have four wi-fi subnets, three routers and powerline networking.  I admit it is overkill.  Basically the functional capabilities of my home network far exceed my needs.

In the tablet space, I have both full and small size IOS and android  tablets.

On a recent trip, the security officer at airport security made me take my tablets out for separate inspection (usually this only applies to laptops).  I thinks she was puzzled why someone would travel with three tablets (ultimately they serve the same function).

And my only explanation is because I can.  I have the time, the skills and of course, find it interesting.

Really

This is a bit of a simplistic explanation.  Even I can see  It is a stretch to believe the only motivation is the ability to undertake the task.  There must also be some interest or desire.

The really puzzling piece for me though is fact is the redundancy.  Once you have one media centre what is the value of multiple devices.

I think  the pleasure in surmounting the challenge of getting it to work, (i.e. proving I can) is the real answer here.  Basically what these things do is of less importance to me than getting them to do it.

Like the mountain climber, I do it because it’s there and I can.