Gerald McBoing Boing is one of my favorite cartoon characters. Presumabky he served as the inspiration to Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair to launch Boing Boing as a zine in 1988. (Issues were subtitled “The World’s Greatest Neurozine.”) It became a website in 1995 and was then relaunched as a weblog in 2000.

If you have not as yet checked out Boing Boing, you’re in for a treat. In fact, you can now have a special treat by checking out the most popular posts on Boing Boing this year.

Two by Cory Doctorow:

Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either)

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home

One by Maggie Koerth-Bsker:

Frazil ice: Fascinating forest hazard

Two by Mark Frauenfelder:

Crayons carved into the 12 symbols of the Chinese zodiac

Old Nintendo NES system and five games sell for $13,105 on eBay