Peter Jansen, a postdoc in a lab for "Engineering Non-Traditional Sensors" at the University of Arizona, has developed (from scratch) a perfectly functional Star Trek-style Tricorder. It's packed with sensors, displays and touchpads, and it even folds up. Plus, this is just version one: version two is much more slick.

There's a fella on YouTube showing off some serious MacGuyver skills. He's made a bullpup-style machine gun that fires BBs, using a 20-ounce soda bottle and some over-the-counter parts totally $15. He shows it off firing at a target, and it looks like it does some serious damage.

As technology evolves, so do our households. We now have all kinds of standard tools to make our lives better and easier, like vacuum cleaners and dishwashers and washing machines and dryers. And pretty soon, 3D printers are going to be part of the household kit, making all kinds of things you didn't know you needed until you printed them out.

To make room for those light and slender Ultrabooks, it might just be time to let go of the steampunk mods, no? Nahh. John Dunn originally made this steampunk laptop for Sony, but can now be yours.