Archives for June 2024

Happy Thursday & Happy 1st Day of Summer! Today is also known as the Summer Solstice which is the longest day of the year. Cheers to a great, hopefully not scorching hot, summer ahead!

In This Issue: What’s on Your Bucket List? | 22U LINIER Fixed Wall Mount Cabinet | What is Cisco Virtual Stacking and how does it work? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – What’s on Your Bucket List?

Happy Thursday!

We all have those special dreams and goals we hope to achieve in our lifetime. Whether it’s traveling to a far-off destination, learning a new skill, or accomplishing a personal milestone, bucket lists are a great way to keep those aspirations alive.

We’d love to hear from you! What’s on your bucket list that you hope to accomplish? Who knows, your goal might just spark an idea for someone else!

We can’t wait to read about your bucket list dreams.

The CK Team

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The 22U LINIER Fixed Wall Mount Cabinet with a solid door is a wall-mounted equipment enclosure used for securely mounting your network equipment, servers, and cabling. The cabinet features a rack depth of 22.5 inches with space for 22 Rack units.

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Learning Center Article – What is Cisco Virtual Stacking and how does it work?

Large, fast networks have to connect powerful switches in order to function properly. It’s the best way to create fast, reliable connections, and the backbone of any significant network is wired, one way or another.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Pringles released a new flavor at the intersection of sweet-meets-spicy and fans are already declaring it their “new favorite.” Pringles Sweet Chili Sauce crisps are said to meld the crunch of potato, cayenne pepper, and sweet sauce flavor combined for a delicious take on the Thai-inspired condiment.
• In a recent announcement, 7-Eleven revealed that two, limited-time, exclusive beverages would be available this summer. The two beverages are MTN DEW Infinite Swirl and MTN DEW Freedom Fusion Slurpee Drink.
• The Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday that it’s referred its complaint against TikTok to the Department of Justice.
• GameStop’s 2024 annual shareholder meeting was disrupted as servers crashed under overwhelming interest.

Happy Wednesday! We’re halfway through the week. What do you have left on your to-do list for the week? Cheers to knocking each of those out!

In This Issue: A Goal Update! | Cisco Compatible Console Cable | Standard Ethernet RJ45 vs Keyed RJ45 Connectors | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – A Goal Update!

Happy Wednesday!

Hope you’re having a great week! As I normally do, here’s a goal update for you. As you may recall, you know I want to read 54 books by the end of the year. I got quite a slow start to the year, but I’m making strides! I think in my last update I was only at 3 books, maybe even 2. I’m up to 8!

I’ve got a bit of a ways to go, but progress is progress! Where are you in accomplishing your goals for the year?

Ashley

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Upgrade your network with our brand new 6 foot, Cisco Compatible Light Blue USB A to RJ45 Rollover Console Cable. These cables will console your IT network by helping you communicate and configure a networking device. Console cable utilizes USB 2.0 to facilitate the console function.

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Learning Center Article – Standard Ethernet RJ45 vs Keyed RJ45 Connectors

If you’ve been in the networking game for a while, or if you work with legacy systems, you may have come across keyed RJ45 at some point. This is a type of Ethernet connector from older systems, but it still works in the modern world when you come across it.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new pact Wednesday that includes a pledge of mutual defense if either is attacked.
• Wendy’s has ended its limited-time Orange Dreamsicle Frosty and replaced with a new seasonal Frosty that has also been made available for a limited time. The Triple Berry Frosty, which combines blackberry, raspberry and strawberry flavors.
• Willie Mays, baseball legend, died Tuesday, the San Francisco Giants announced. He was 93.
• The United States was buffeted by extreme weather Wednesday, with Texas bracing for the first tropical storm of the hurricane season while the Northeast still faced a major heat wave.

Happy Tuesday & Happy National Go Fishing Day! Whether you’re an avid angler or just enjoy the tranquility of being by the water, today is the perfect day to cast a line and reel in some relaxation.

In This Issue: A Fun and Busy Father’s Day Weekend! | Cisco 2901 Router 19″ Rack Mount Kit | What is Traffic Shaping? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – A Fun and Busy Father’s Day Weekend!

Good Morning & Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone had a great Father’s Day weekend!

It was a good but EXHAUSTING weekend for me! I had a “girl’s night” with my nieces on Friday night which was super fun. We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant, went shopping at TJMaxx where they each got to pick out a small toy, and came home so they could play with their toys and we could do their favorite girl’s night activity – have a flashlight freeze tag dance party! The things you do for kids… 😉 They had such a great time and their nonstop giggles were the best – but it was definitely an exhausting evening!

On Saturday, I went to my friend Jami’s house to babysit her 2 boys so that she and her husband could throw a 50th Anniversary celebration for his parents at their church. The boys are sweet as can be, but were at a 10/10 energy level so I don’t think I sat down once in the nearly 5 hours that we were together!

Sunday was spent running around to various stores getting things to host a Father’s Day dinner at my house which was really nice. I’ve always had a tremendous amount of love and respect for my dad, but have grown even more thankful for him over the past couple of years. I’ve realized lately that not everyone has a dad who takes their role seriously, who leads with love, who works hard to provide, who constantly puts others first, who is honest, gentle, humble, kind, etc. The impact of great Dad’s can’t be overstated and I’m very thankful that God blessed me with one of the best!

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Cisco 2901 Router 19″ Rack Mount Kit presents an excellent solution for network administrators and IT professionals who want to enhance the performance and efficiency of their network infrastructure. This kit is specifically designed to seamlessly integrate with existing setups and optimize the capabilities of the Cisco 2901 Router.

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Learning Center Article – What is Traffic Shaping?

When you’ve worked in networking for a while, you’ll come to realize an unspoken truth. There’s never enough bandwidth to go around. A lot of professional network design is really a matter of figuring out how to split your resources in order to minimize problems.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• The Boston Celtics win thier 18th NBA championship with 106-88 Game 5 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
• Numerous cities in the Midwest, the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic are expecting multiple days of extreme heat and high humidity this week into the weekend.
• The Food and Drug Administration approved Merck’s vaccine designed to protect adults from a bacteria known as pneumococcus that can cause serious illnesses and a lung infection called pneumonia.
• Apple announced that it has stopped issuing loans through Apple Pay Later, its buy-now-pay-later program that launched last year.

Happy Monday! We hope you had a wonderful weekend and to all the fathers – a wonderful Father’s Day! How did you enjoy the weekend?

In This Issue: Family Fun, Delicious BBQ, and the Birds of St. Augustine 🤩 | Yealink WH62 Dual DECT Wireless Headset | Best Way to Connect Multiple Switches | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Family Fun, Delicious BBQ, and the Birds of St. Augustine 🤩

Happy Monday!

It was a bit of a scorcher this weekend, so we spent most of our time indoors. I visited my parents on Saturday for an early Father’s day get together. We enjoyed some ribs and wings and my 4 year old daughter gathered everyone for a dance recital. My sister played some classical music on the piano providing music for the dance. It was very sweet.

On Sunday my kids woke me up with a delicious breakfast and we went to church shortly after. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching movies and playing games. It was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon!

Here are some bird photos I took while in St. Augustine. All of these, except for 1 were taken at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.

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

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Yealink WH62 is an entry-level DECT wireless headset that works seamlessly with major UC platforms and integrates natively with Yealink VoIP phones. Additionally, it is Microsoft Teams certified. This plug-and-play headset provides crystal-clear audio thanks to the Yealink Full-Band Audio Technology and Acoustic Shield Technology.

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Learning Center Article – Best Way to Connect Multiple Switches

It’s why many modern switches come pre-designed to work in a stack, cluster, or other configuration. The goal is to connect multiple switches together in order to improve the network.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Extreme heat has begun to hit the US, delivered by a high-pressure weather pattern that the federal weather prediction center says will be “potentially the longest experienced in decades for some locations”.
• Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” debuted with an estimated $155 million domestically, the second-highest theatrical opening of an animated film.
• Cocoa prices have been soaring this year, hitting record highs and causing headaches for candy companies. While hedging contracts protect the likes of Hershey and Mondelez for now, high cocoa prices could change how they think about innovation.
• NASA announced that Boeing’s Starliner capsule “Calypso” will stay at the International Space Station twice as long as the mission originally planned. Calypso’s mission is now expected to return to Earth on June 22, departing the ISS at 11:42 p.m. ET on June 21 before landing at 6:26 a.m. ET.

Happy Friday! It’s been a wild week on the CK side of things so we’re all certainly looking forward to the weekend. Have weekend plans? Do share!

In This Issue: Who Are Your Picks? | Kendall Howard CPU Brackets | Servers vs. Desktop PCs | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Who Are Your Picks?

Happy Friday, folks! June is an exciting time in the world of sports! Both the NBA Finals and the NHL Stanley Cup are happening. So, who are you pulling for in each sport?

On the NBA side, the NBA Finals features two of the most exciting teams in the sport, and I’m excited to see how this series plays out. So far, the Celtics are dominating, but I still hope we get 7 games to watch!

I don’t regularly watch hockey, but the Stanley Cup should be exciting, so I’ll be tuning in to a few of the games. Which team are you pulling for?

Have a great weekend!

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Kendall Howard’s Small-Form-Factor Wall Mount CPU Brackets are designed to get the computer off the floor and the desktop. The brackets make it easy to secure and mount any small-form-factor PC to the wall or side of the desk. The velcro strap secures the PC to the bracket.

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Learning Center Article – Servers Vs. Desktop PCs

If you ever shop for computer parts, you might see things for desktop PCs and servers lumped together. This isn’t always the case, but it’s easy enough to see these different parts come up in a single search.

Why is that? Are both types of computers using the exact same hardware? Can you mix and match between them? What’s the real difference between a desktop PC and a server in the first place?

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Forecasters warn a dangerous and potentially record-breaking heat wave will spread across much of the central and eastern U.S. next week.
• Netflix has been reaching out to broadcasters in hopes of one of them producing the NFL games it agreed to stream on Christmas Day.
• The Pentagon announced the first winning bidders in its rocket launch contract sweepstakes, with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin grabbing a spot for the first time. The Pentagon’s $5.6 billion National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program will feature the trio of Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) competing for rocket contracts.
• Tech gurus have been saying for years that the online password will go extinct, yet Apple just launched its own version of a password manager at its WWDC earlier this week. Apple’s version, its Passwords app, is free and convenient, but cybersecurity experts still say push notification-based authentication, biometrics or passkeys are a better solution for the future.

Happy Thursday! Friday is just around the corner. Are you looking forward to the weekend? 😎

In This Issue: Encouragement from YOU! | Cable Raceway | What is Third Party Maintenance? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Encouragement from YOU!

Happy Thursday!

A few weeks back we shared some encouragement and ask you all for your favorite words of encouragement as well. Several of you sent some to us, so we wanted to share. Enjoy!

The CK Team

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” —Thomas A. Edison

“Great moments are born from great opportunity.” —Nikola Tesla

“I’m not afraid of failure; I’m afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.” —William Carey

“Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

“We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.” —Albert Einstein

“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” —Colin R. Davis

“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” —Mister Rogers

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” —Tony Robbins

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Cable raceways are used to route, conceal, and protect cables. They are surface-mounted systems that usually run along the perimeter of walls in homes or offices, however they can also be mounted on any other flat surace! These raceways can also be used to hide and organize exposed cables to free up the area around you for a cleaner look.

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Learning Center Article – What is Third Party Maintenance?

When you have a lot of IT equipment, such as owning a data center or a large enterprise system, you need quality support to keep it running at its best.

For that support, you have a few options. You can rely on maintenance from the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). You can house your own support staff. Or, you can contract a third party to take care of it all for you.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Ford Motor is ending its electric vehicle dealership program that initially asked store owners to invest upward of $1 million to sell EVs.
• Stellantis expects to grow sales of Jeep vehicles to roughly 1.5 million units globally by 2027. It plans to expand its vehicle nameplates from 10 to 13 by 2027. Jeep is expected to roll out the recently revealed Wagoneer S EV later this year, followed by a Jeep Wrangler-inspired off-road vehicle called the Recon.
• Honor launched its first flip foldable phone as the Chinese electronics maker looks to step up its challenge in the high-end market against major players like Samsung.
• In an inspiring return 200 years in the making, the last truly wild horse species has been reintroduced onto the open steppes of Kazakhstan. The Guardian reports that four mares from a breeding program in Berlin and a stallion and two other mares from Prague, were flown to the Central Asian country to mark the second successful reintroduction of Przewalski’s horse to the lands that above all others are associated with this beloved animal.