Archives for February 2024

Happy Monday! We hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed watching the Super Bowl. I know several of us look forward to the commercials. Which commercial was your favorite?

In This Issue: Football, Sweethearts & Pokemon | 25-Foot AC Power Cord | Why you should upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 Access Points? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Football, Sweethearts & Pokemon

Happy Monday!

Did you watch the Super Bowl last night like I did? What a game! Looks like the Chiefs are trying to start a dynasty! I was rooting for the 49ers, my parents have been fans since before I was born, but the Chiefs, with that Taylor Swift magic, seemed to have pulled it off. I wasn’t too disappointed, the game was fun to watch. I’m not normally a football fan, but I do like to watch the Superbowl, in the past, it was for the commercials, but it seems that (even though great effort is given), the commercials aren’t as funny or remarkable. Does anyone remember those Budweiser frogs? I’m sure you do if you are of a certain age, haha!

It was a pretty busy weekend aside from football madness for our family. On Friday I took my oldest daughter to a sweetheart dance and she had a blast, mostly running around screaming with her friends as elementary kids tend to do when they get together. I did make an interesting observation, the humble balloon can entertain a group of kids for hours. There were some kids that I saw playing around with a 10-cent balloon for the entire 3 hours of the dance. The kids loved playing this game called “keepy uppy” where the objective is to keep the balloon off the ground as long as possible at any cost. It seemed like children were diving and crashing into each other everywhere!

On Saturday I took my wife out to dinner for an early Valentine’s Day meal and we went to one of her favorite restaurants here called Jack’s Public House. To round out the weekend, we went to church and then visited a local card and game shop and played some Pokemon with some friends. The card shop, Fandomie, was small, but pretty awesome and the owner was very friendly and gave out goodies to the kids as we played and traded.

Don’t forget, Valentine’s Day is around the corner on Wednesday!

I hope you have a great day and a wonderful week!

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The high-quality 25-foot AC power cord, C5040300, is designed for powering a wide range of electronic devices. Constructed with 14 AWG wire, it guarantees safe and efficient power transmission while minimizing resistance and voltage drop. It comes with a 5-15P plug, a standard NEMA configuration commonly found on power strips, surge protectors, and various electrical devices.

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Learning Center Article – Why You Should Upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 Access Points

If you have a wireless network, you need access points that enable users to connect. For a long time, WiFi 5 was the industry standard that governed how wireless networks functioned, but today, WiFi 6 is here and available. Upgrading your network to WiFi 6 offers some major benefits, and it could change how your entire operation functions.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• McDonald’s has always been innovative. Since the fast food chain was founded in 1940, it has regularly switched up its menu to keep customers coming back to try something new. But not all of the dishes became permanent fixtures that you can still order today. Remember Mighty Wings, McDonald’s Pizza or the McDLT? Scroll through the gallery here for a blast from the past.
• The most expensive home for sale in the U.S. goes up for $295 million in Naples, Florida.
• Amazon has won the exclusive rights to stream an NFL playoff game on Prime Video next season.
  Aware, an AI firm specializing in analyzing employee messages, said companies including Walmart,
• Delta, T-Mobile, Chevron and Starbucks are using its technology. Aware said its data repository contains messages that represent about 20 billion individual interactions across more than 3 million employees.

Happy Friday & Happy Superbowl Weekend! Who do you think will walk away with the win? Chiefs or 49ers?

In This Issue: Free Things! | Cisco ISR 4000 Blank Faceplate | Does Copper Cabling Still Have a Place in Data Centers? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Free Things!

Happy Friday, folks!

I’ll be attending a conference in a few weeks. One of the things that my kids look forward to is the swag that I pick up at the various booths during the conference. I always see a lot of the regular, useful swag, like pens and microfiber screen cleaners. But those don’t excite my kids. They get excited by things they can throw (squishy balls or pucks) or snuggle with (llamas, anyone?)!

What are your favorite swag items? What swag do you use regularly?

We’re exploring new swag items to give out so we’d love to hear your ideas!

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

This Cisco-compatible ISR 4000 NIM slot faceplate is specifically constructed to cover the NIM slot in Cisco’s 4000 series integrated services routers. This allows your router to improve airflow and run better for a longer period of time. Not to mention, it makes your router look a little more attractive. This Cisco accessory is compatible with a variety of models.

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Learning Center Article – Does Copper Cabling Still Have a Place in Data Centers?

More than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced every day. That’s a mind-boggling number. Equally impressive is that roughly 90 percent of all data in the world was produced in the last two years. That second statistic will likely hold true even as years pass.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Wendy’s is delighting its fans once again with an announcement that the eatery is debuting a brand new Frosty flavor next month – Orange Dreamsicle!
• Hawaiian Airlines is rolling out complimentary Wi-Fi via SpaceX’s Starlink onboard commercial flights this week.
• Delta Air Lines’ popular airport lounges are getting a more exclusive tier, in the airline’s latest push to cater to high-spending travelers. The first “premium” lounge is scheduled to open in June at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, and at 38,000 square feet, it will be the largest of the carrier’s lounges.
• The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024 was revealed Thursday night at NFL Honors in Las Vegas’ Resorts World, three days before Super Bowl LVIII. Read more here.

Happy Thursday! We hope you’re having a great week. If we can be praying for you this week, please let us know. Also, we don’t say it all the time – but thank you for being part of our CK Daily family!

In This Issue: Lessons Learned: Don’t Expect What You Don’t Inspect | Cisco 3750X Series 24 Port Switch | FAQ: MDF vs IDF | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Lessons Learned: Don’t Expect What You Don’t Inspect

Howdy! Craig here. In my last email, I mentioned that we suddenly had a significant drop in revenue. Not to kill the suspense, but due to a massive amount of backbreaking hard work from the entire team, coupled with the Lord’s favor, we climbed back to a profitable position and are seeing a lot of positive momentum from our many efforts over the last several months.

I have been writing about some of our “lessons learned” through this season and today I want to talk about knowing and watching your numbers.

There are many variations of the quote “People don’t do what you expect but what you inspect” which is attributed to Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. I have often heard and said “Don’t EXPECT what you don’t INSPECT” as well. Either way, the point is the same – people (including ourselves) do not just naturally and consistently work on the things that you deem to matter the most for the sake of moving the business forward. It is very easy for all of us to work on what is in front of us (the urgent vs the important) and wander off the reservation so to speak.

I was just thinking about how to express an idea and what came to me was a picture of a giant game of Jenga, but where each piece of wood is a process. If each process is carefully considered to be important to the well-being and stable growth of the organization and is well planned, documented, measured, and watched, it becomes a very stable piece of the Jenga tower. As you start with building processes for every operational component of the business you stack the game higher and higher. As pressures or distractions come at the staff, if the processes are meaningful, well documented, measured, and watched, it will be hard to knock the tower down – in fact, no piece (process) will be “removed” from the game at all if the staff is faithful to the processes.

One of our core values is “Build processes that don’t fail”. This is so important to me. I hate to have an issue occur without taking the time to understand what went wrong and “permanently fix the temporary problem” (one of my Craigisms). If I see that a process could have prevented an issue, I very much want that process to exist and be followed. For the most part, the entire CK team values this deeply as well – especially those who have been around a long time.

One of the things we came to learn over the past 5 months is that while we do have amazing operational processes and VAS (Visibility, Accountability, creating sustainability), we were heavily lacking in e-commerce and marketing processes and VAS. Looking back into the past we have had a variety of ways we have approached things but we have not consistently built sustainable processes. We have changed the game, the rules of the game, the things we measured or were concerned with, have gotten distracted by shiny things, have had a loss of momentum due to staff changes, and the list goes on. Due to this, our SEO, Adwords, on-site merchandising, and several other things suffered to the point of extremely poor performance or failure. That reminds me of an old SEO joke – Where is the best place to hide a dead body? Page two of Google. We were there – with all the dead bodies. Our SEO was terrible. No wonder our organic (non-paid) traffic was so terrible. So we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

This is one of the many things that we have uncovered in the last several months that have contributed to the drop in revenue. There are others, but at the root of just about everything is the ability to know what you are aiming for, know what you believe will get you there, and then be disciplined and diligent to work on the right things to drive in that direction. This is for sure one of the areas we were weak. But, as you may have guessed, we have made significant strides to correct this, which has resulted in amazing priorities and focus since!

More to come…

Craig

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Cisco 3750 X switches help maximize productivity by giving IT managers the tools to support enterprise applications and advanced traffic management. With an array of network modules and redundant power supply options available, these switches can be customized and scaled to support nearly any application.

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Learning Center Article – FAQ: MDF vs IDF

In the world of IT, acronyms are everywhere. It can be hard to keep up, so sometimes, you need to break down the acronyms to solidify what they mean and why they matter. Applying that idea, today, we’re going to talk about MDF and IDF.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• McDonald’s has released its latest menu, which features a new wrap, three desserts and its first-ever food collaboration. Along with the two sweet treats, The fast food chain announced a partnership with the hot sauce manufacturer Frank’s RedHot, which is a fan favorite in the US, for its new McSpicy burger.
• Disney announced a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games and plans to create a new “games and entertainment universe” together, building on Disney’s characters and stories, over several years.
• ESPN will launch its flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service in the fall of 2025.
• Disney is releasing an animated sequel to “Moana” this Thanksgiving.

Happy Wednesday! We’ve hit the middle of the week, which means we’re almost to the weekend. Do you have any upcoming weekend plans you’re looking forward to? Have a great day!

In This Issue: The Value of Reviews | TP-Link Gigabit Multimode Fiber Media Converter | Polarity for MPO Cables | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – The Value of Reviews

Happy Wednesday!

How’s your week going? I hope great! This week’s been a bit of a challenge for me because our 6-month-old is saying hello to his first tooth – and the teething pain is real. I don’t remember the feeling of having tooth pain, but I know that it has to be far from enjoyable. But, we’re making it!

Anywho, with him teething, it’s led me to go on the hunt for the best things to give your baby when they are teething. There are so many things out there that people recommend, so I’ve been taking a few deep dives into reviews – and boy are they so helpful in helping me determine what might work for my little one.

Recently, we’ve had some reviews come through that we are so grateful for! We love serving you and want others to know more about the service we provide to help you feel confident in your purchases. It’s important to us that everyone knows it’s more than just a purchase to us. We value relationships, good service, and so much more. If you’ve worked with us in the past, we’d love it if you’d leave us a review on Google! You can do that here.

I hope you have a great week and as always – thanks for being part of our CK Famil. We’re so grateful!

Ashley

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Media converters are used to interconnect different types of cables within an existing network. They recieve data from one type of cable and convert the signals for transmission along another cable type. The MC220CM converts 1000BASE-SX fiber to 1000BASE-T copper media or vice versa.

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Learning Center Article – Polarity for MPO Cables

High-end fiber optics are important to modern networking, but they’re a lot more complicated than some of their older counterparts. If you need the power of fiber, you might be looking into MPO systems. They can hit some of the highest speeds on the market today, but utilizing them requires knowledge. One key piece of knowledge that can help with MPO systems is polarity.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Famous Amos is changing its cookie recipe. The relaunch of the original chocolate chip cookie recipe means a return to high-quality ingredients, like semi-sweet chocolate chips, wheat flour, and blackstrap molasses.
• Hallmark announced that two of its channels, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama, will be rebranded with new names and more clearly defined programming.
• ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery plan to launch a joint sports streaming service later this year.
• Coca-Cola has added its name to the latest brands trying to get in on the trend for spicy snacks and beverages. On Wednesday, the Atlanta beverage giant introduced Coca-Cola Spiced, the first new permanent offering to its North American portfolio in three years.

Happy Tuesday & Happy National Frozen Yogurt Day! Are you a frozen yogurt fan? What are your favorite toppings to add on top of your frozen yogurt?

In This Issue: Staying Connected & Intentional | Cisco 1000BASE-T SFP Module | What Are Copper Transceivers? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Staying Connected & Intentional

Good Morning & Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is off to a great start to the week! We finally made it to February which means we can officially say Spring begins next month! Not that I’m counting down or anything… 😉

It’s been a nice start to the month so far. I got to attend a Gym Dogs (UGA women’s gymnastics) meet on Friday night which was a lot of fun. I also managed to soak in some sunshine over the weekend and get in a short hike near Lake Lanier which turned out to be prettier than I was expecting!

Last night I got to have dinner with one of my oldest childhood friends that I grew up with. We became friends when we were 7 years old and have maintained a friendship for decades which is something I’m truly thankful for. Last night we were discussing how you can’t make “new old friends” and how there’s something special about having people in your life who have known all the different “versions” of you and stuck by your side through all the phases and seasons of life!

I’m a huge advocate of being intentional with developing and nurturing friendships, especially in this digital age that we live in! I don’t know all the statistics but have heard that people are lonelier now than ever before. Life can get busy and it’s easy to fall into a rut of going through the motions alone, but it’s important to make time for friendship! Don’t underestimate the joy that can come from even doing the most mundane things with friends like grocery shopping!

I’ve certainly been blessed and am so thankful to have a network of people who I love and trust in my corner! How do you stay connected with your crew!?

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Cisco GLC-T transceiver module is a 1000BASE-T SFP for Copper Networks. It is designed for Gigabit Ethernet connectivity over Category 5e (Cat5e) unshielded twisted pair copper cabling up to 100m link length via a RJ-45 connector. It operates at a data transfer rate of up to 1000 megabits per second (Mbps).

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Learning Center Article – What Are Copper Transceivers?

In data centers and other high-speed networks, you often rely on fiber optics to supply enough bandwidth. Despite that, even the most advanced networks still benefit from enabling Ethernet devices. How do you reconcile the two?

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage hit 7.04% on Monday. Mortgage rates have been on a wild ride since the summer, briefly crossing to a 20-year high of 8% in October.
• NASA rover finds damaged helicopter in the middle of Mars desert. Read more here.
• Country music star Toby Keith has passed away early Tuesday. He was 62.
• For the second year, Sour Patch Kids is bringing back its Black Raspberry Sour Hearts. The dark hearts come in a black box with two naughty Sour Patch Kids fighting over your broken heart. The candies are available in a giftable heart-shaped box.

Happy Monday! We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and has a wonderful week ahead. Who’s excited that the groundhog didn’t see its shadow? Early spring, here we come!

In This Issue: Free Shipping 📦 | Plug Adapter C20 | All About Media Converters | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Free Shipping 📦

Happy Monday!

I’ve been doing a lot more online shopping lately for clothing and random everyday products and I noticed something about the experience. I purposefully filter by free shipping and look for free shipping thresholds. I definitely try to be a frugal shopper and will look for deals, but I also know that shipping costs do weigh heavily on the buying process.For example I bought a floor lamp for $39 with free shipping, but there was a similar product on another site for $30 with $8 shipping and I just bought the $39 with free shipping (I know I could’ve saved $1) but I’d rather have free shipping than not free shipping even if the totals are around the same. There’s something comforting about it and it makes a world of a difference to me.

Did you know that CablesAndKits offers free shipping for over $39? I think that’s a steal! On other sites I’ve shopped, I’ve seen thresholds at around $99 and even up to $300. Does shipping weigh into your buying process?

I hope you have a great day and a wonderful week!

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

A compact solution to convert a standard 15 Amp, 125 Volt NEMA 5-15 male plug into a compatible fit for IEC C20 female outlets or connectors. Enhance your power connectivity with this durable and reliable adapter for versatile setups.

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Learning Center Article – All About Media Converters

Simple networks come with a lot of advantages. You don’t have to check compatibility from one component to the next. Everything can run at the same speed. You spend less money. It’s all nice, but there’s a catch. The simplest networks are not the most powerful.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. are now serving improved versions of the chain’s famous burgers. The company made small tweaks that led to a noticeably more flavorful burger.
• Amazon added new disclosures around climate change to the risk factors section of its annual filing. The company said climate change could cause its operating results to fluctuate as a result of higher costs tied to things such as transitioning to “a low-carbon economy.”
• Walt Disney World executives confirmed that they will revive one of the attractions at the park —”Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.”
• Spotify has signed a new multiyear deal with Joe Rogan, host of popular podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.” The show was previously exclusive to Spotify, but the company said it will now be available on additional platforms.