It occurred to me as I was going through some old pictures that I never got to post my coolest hack so far, as I didn't have a blog back then. As a serious MacGyver fan, I love being able to solve problems using some ingenuity and what I have on hand. No, it's not making a blowtorch out of a bicycle frame or stopping a chemical leak with a chocolate bar, but I thought it was pretty neat.
The back story: April 2006. I'm having to fly to Toronto for two weeks of software training. We're about halfway to the airport when I realize that I'd left my cell phone plugged into the charger back at our apartment. D'oh. There's not enough time to turn around and go back for it, but I know I'm going to need a phone. Marci has her phone, so we can just switch numbers for a little while and everything will be fine. But Marci only has her car charger, and I'm not going to have a car (thanks to my cheapskate boss who wouldn't rent me one 
). After some quick thinking, I grab the car charger anyway, already formulating a plan.
A car charger, but no car!
When I get settled into my hotel room, I started to work. See, I'd brought with me a spare Netgear wireless router, because the room had wired high-speed Internet, but I wanted wireless so I could roam around the room. While I was packing it, I had to be careful to match up the right power adapter, since I also have a Netgear 8-port switch that operates on a different voltage. When I packed the router, I had to make sure to also pack the 12V power adapter. What also runs on 12V? Car cigarette outlets. Now all I needed was some hookup wire so I didn't have to ruin either adapter. No problem, because as overprepared as I am, I packed two CAT5 network cables, which are relatively cheap.
Wall wart from router
Spare network cable
Notice the sexy lounge pants
Just needed this much wire
Adapter connection
Car charger connection
Just had to pull a couple of wires from the cable, get everything connected, and voila! A car charger, hold the car.
The finished setup
Charging... see, it works!
Hack Successful