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We're barely a month into our ongoing Ars Cardboard series of board game reviews, but suffice it to say, we love playing board games whenever possible. As such, we were thrilled to see Amazon post a massive half-off sale on some of the best-reviewed board games of the past five years—but it's only live until the end of Friday, December 4.

You'll want to act fast as one of its best offerings, Ticket To Ride, sold out of its promotional price as we were preparing this report. Luckily the sale still has some serious critical gems at seriously low prices. The offerings range from hardcore, card-dueling delights like Mage Wars and Ascension to family-friendly classics like Dixit (update: sold out!) and King of New York—along with in-betweeners like Robo Rally, Libertalia, and Illuminati. (Some people will also recommend that new board gamers pick up the sale's discounted copy of card-economy game Dominion; this author is not one of those people.)

Some games don't quite get a 50 percent discount in the sale, but others go a little further. You can find 55 percent off the newest Magic the Gathering board game for example. Act now—and beef up your board game collection ahead of so many cold December nights.

After losing in the appellate phase, Samsung has finally agreed that it will pay Apple a $548 million partial judgement as part of the two companies’ longstanding patent battle.

According to a Thursday court filing, Samsung will pay the amount once Apple has submitted an invoice, which is due Friday. The payment is expected to be completed by December 14, at which point Apple will withdraw its motion to enforce the court’s judgment.

That $548 million amount was cut from an initial 2012 verdict that awarded $930 million to Apple.

Fantasizing online about kidnapping, sexually abusing, and eating women does not amount to unlawful conduct or thoughtcrime, a federal appeals court ruled. A person's "inclinations and fantasies are his own and beyond the reach of the government," 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Barrington Parker wrote Thursday in the criminal case of Gilberto Valle, dubbed the New York City "cannibal cop."

"We are loath to give the government power to punish us for our thoughts and not our actions," Barrington ruled. "That includes the power to criminalize an individual’s expression of sexual fantasies, no matter how perverse or disturbing."

The 2-1 decision by the New York-based federal appeals court sides with a trial judge who dismissed a jury's verdict that the former police officer was guilty of conspiracy to kidnap because of his online discussions with members of the Dark Fetish Network (DFN). The government, on the other hand, argued that the online communications "taken at face value, were fully sufficient to establish his intent to join a kidnapping conspiracy."

T-Mobile USA earned the highest score among the four major nationwide carriers in the latest Consumer Reports ranking of cellular service providers. But the gaps between T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint weren't very large, as the big four all lagged far behind the smallest carriers in customer satisfaction.

Consumer Cellular came in first place out of 10 postpaid carriers with an overall score of 89 out of 100, followed by Ting, which scored 88. The next four carriers were GreatCall/Jitterbug, Credo Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and US Cellular, which all scored in the 70s.

The big four occupied the bottom four slots. T-Mobile scored 73, followed by Verizon at 70, AT&T at 68, and Sprint at 67.

A recent review of the Internet-connected Hello Barbie doll from toymaker Mattel uncovered several red flags. Not only did the toy use a weak authentication mechanism that made it possible for attackers to monitor communications the doll sent to servers, but those servers were also vulnerable to POODLE, an attack disclosed 14 months ago that breaks HTTPS encryption.

The vulnerabilities, laid out in a report published Friday by security firm Bluebox Labs, are the latest black eye for so-called "Internet of Things" devices. The term is applied to appliances and other everyday devices that are connected to the Internet, supposedly to give them a wider range of capabilities. The Hello Barbie doll is able to hold real-time conversations by uploading the words a child says to a server. Instant processing on the server then allows the doll to provide an appropriate response.

Bluebox researchers uncovered a variety of weaknesses in the iOS and Android app developed by Mattel partner ToyTalk. The apps are used to connect the doll to a nearby Wi-Fi networks. The researchers also reported vulnerabilities in the remote server used to communicate with the doll.

A federal judge in Minnesota has ordered one of the men behind the notorious Prenda Law group to liquidate his assets. Paul Hansmeier must now sell his condominium, among other assets, in order to pay back $2.5 million of debts more quickly rather than having the case drag out for years.

"Here, the debtor has a pattern and practice of dishonesty with the courts," US Bankruptcy Judge Kathleen Sanberg said during the Thursday hearing. She ordered Hansmeier to convert his Chapter 13 (wage earner's plan) bankruptcy filing to a Chapter 7 (liquidation). Under Chapter 13, Hansmeier could have paid his creditors much more slowly.

"This case was designed for one purpose only, to thwart the collection efforts of debtors," the judge added. "It was not because the debtor now wants to pay creditors in full."