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PC.net has been around for almost 20 years (including the Sharpened.net days). In that time, I don't know if I have ever gone three months without an Editor's Update, but it has been almost that long. The good news is that I have been continuing to make updates in the background, including additions to the Help Center and Extensions pages. I've been keeping the monthly tips going as well. So don't worry — I haven't completely neglected PC.net the past three months.

So what's the reason for my absence? Primarily, I have been working on my first home renovation project since I moved into my house nearly ten years ago. The entire project was supposed to be done over a month ago. Everything has taken substantially longer and cost significantly more than what I was initially told. And the work that has been done so far has been poor quality with no attention to detail. It has been one of the most frustrating experiences of my life.

But the thing I am most frustrated with is how much time and energy this project has sapped from my life. It has consumed my free time, my work time, and a fair amount of my sleep time. I am constantly on the phone with contractors, designers, and suppliers talking about things I don't even care about. At least not anymore.

While I have been overwhelmed with frustration, it has made me glad I waited almost ten years to get myself into this mess. For the past nine years, I have lived in a house with many things I wanted to change, but didn't. It was good enough so I didn't make the effort. Instead, I used my time and money to travel to different places around the world. My house wasn't perfect but I didn't really care.

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I just lost a year and a half of activity data. Everything I recorded with my Apple Watch from January 7, 2017 to June 15, 2018 is gone. All my daily step counts, stand hours, exercise minutes, and calories burned — gone. All my runs, workouts, and sports played — gone. Everything is gone.

The main reason I bought the Apple Watch at the beginning of 2017 was to record my activity data. So it was devastating to permanently lose all the data I have meticulously recorded the past 18 months. It is hard to justify even wearing my Apple Watch now.

So how did I lose all my activity data?

Actually, Apple lost my data. Let me explain...

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I bought an iMac Pro at the beginning of March and it has been my primary workstation the past three months. So was it worth the premium price? Let's find out.

First, let's start with the specs:

Processor: 3.0 GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
Memory: 64 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 ECC memory
Storage: 2TB SSD
Graphics: Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB of HBM2 memory
Cost: $8,000 before taxes and AppleCare.

For a typical user, $8,000 is an absurd cost for a desktop computer. For a media professional, it is not ridiculous, though it is still on the high-end when it comes to price. But I'm more concerned about the value than the absolute price. The value is determined by the performance and the time it saves me.

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In recent weeks, Facebook has been under fire for sharing user data with the UK-based analytics company Cambridge Analytica. This data is said to have been used for targeting political ads during the 2016 US presidential election. While Facebook has been doing damage control since the news broke two weeks ago, a recent poll is now providing a new perspective on the scandal.

The poll results? 100% of Facebook users do not actually care about privacy.

The poll, published on Facebook, was closed after receiving 15,000,000 votes from users in 150 different countries. It asked a simple question: "Do you care about privacy online? Yes or No."

A stunning 14,999,903 users answered No. The 97 votes for Yes were deemed statistically insignificant and were possibly responses from bots.

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A few years ago, if you asked someone about their experience on a cruise ship, you might ask about the food, the activities, and the friendliness of the staff. Now a common first question is, "How good is the Wi-Fi?"

Cruise ships are notorious for slow and unreliable Internet connections. This is because of two primary reasons: 1) many cruise ships were built before Internet access was an expectation of travelers, and 2) they only have a satellite link to the Internet. After all, it's hard to find wireless access points floating in the middle of sea.

With that in mind, I had low expectations for Internet connectivity before beginning my recent journey to Antarctica on the Hurtigruten MS Fram. I thought I might have to wait until I returned home to post any of my pictures on Facebook or Instagram. Fortunately, this fear was unfounded and I was able to use the Internet for most of the trip.

I signed up for the "VIP" Wi-Fi package, which provided Internet access for the entire journey, which was nearly 14 days. Hurtigruten offered a few other options, such as 24-hour or 72-hour access, but I did not entertain those options. The receptionist also told me that the VIP Internet access was the fastest so it was a no-brainer. I don't know how the VIP package compared to the other access levels, but at least I can say the VIP Internet access was great.

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