I think that is just building something from parts. A hack implies something ultra rigged and ugly looking.

I was taking it in the "not the intended use" sense, like the posted clips. And I 'll disagree that a good hack must look ugly ... for example, yesterday's beautiful Turing machine is a hack in my book.

The stand's not my idea, anyway. Posted because of the title, someone else might like it. I'm alright ;-)

As long as I'm "selling" IKEA stuff (I wish, I just give them money ;-): in their kitchen area, there's a Dralla "cutting board". This is a pleasant piece of flexible matte plastic, a couple of millimeters thick, about the size of two sheets of paper, with rounded corners; I've seen it in dark-gray, blue and red.

I use the Dralla as a writing pad, on the desk; some people seem to like it as a giant mouse-pad. (Not in the photo, the red thing is a thicker, smaller, unused mouse-pad.)

i've always constructed monitor stands from phone books, but sometime in the near future, there won't be huge stacks of them for free at the supermarket

Funny, I've used that exact technique before. This leaves space underneath to shove the keyboard away and have a go at the pencil and paper ...