Hacking day-to-day gadgets for better utility

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Yesterday I was watching some videos on youtube which showed some great techniques on making some changes in the day-to-day gadgets to make them more useful and also cool to others. There were some which drew my attention. There was one which was a tutorial on how to make a usb fan which is connected to the cpu. The uploader made it by very simple things like a small motor, a usb cable, a mutilated cd which made up the blades of the fan and some wires to connect the motor and the usb cable. It was mounted on a cardboard holder and wow! the fan was ready. It even gave a good amount of air to blow the papers away. Another one was about the laser designator which is placed in the houses as safety devices. These blow the siren if someone passes through the beams. It was a very cool home-made device with very little stuff and cost. I watched one more about a 12 volt battery which when opened consisted of small batteries piled upon one another and there was one which was related to replacing the laptop batteries which was quite economical given the prices of dealers. Have you ever tried hacking the day-to-day gadgets for more performance or tried making your own stuff like a usb fan something else with known gadgets?