CablesAndKits

Happy Tuesday! We hope you’re having a great week and settling back into the groove after spring break season. What trip do you have planned next?

In This Issue: A Weekend of Hiking…& SNOW! | Kendall Howard Small Form Factor CPU Wall Mount Shelf | Understanding Indoor Fiber Optic Cable Color Schemes | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – A Weekend of Hiking…& SNOW!

Good Morning & Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is off to a great start this week!

I had a fantastic weekend exploring North Carolina. On Friday we headed up to Boone, NC to enjoy a weekend of hiking! The weather was extremely windy but beautiful the entire drive up, but late Friday afternoon it started to get overcast and cloudy.

After getting settled in at the cabin, we decided to head to Blowing Rock, NC to hike the Rough Ridge Overlook Trail. By the time we got there, we had driven into rain that soon turned to SNOW. We couldn’t believe it. We decided to still check out the hike which was a very intense experience given the snow and the extremely high winds. We couldn’t see a thing, but it was still fun!

On Saturday we hiked Mount Mitchell which is the highest peak east of the Mississippi. Multiple trails lead to the top (in fact, you can actually drive to the top) but we chose to hike in from Black Mountain Campground which AllTrails said was an 11.2 mile hike. It’s known for giving incorrect distances and we ended up clocking 13.1 miles and 4200 feet of elevation gain!

We were all pretty tired by the time we got to the top! Another unexpected surprise was that the top of the mountain was covered in snow. It was absolutely beautiful and we really enjoyed it, although we were way underprepared for the weather! We never considered snow when packing for the trip! It was truly a wonderful weekend and I’m glad we got to check a bucket list hike off of our list!

Have you been to Mount Mitchell? I highly recommend it if you’re ever in the area!

Rebecca

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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. Everyone needs a CPU bracket to protect their PC.

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Learning Center Article – Understanding Indoor Fiber Optic Cable Color Schemes

Fiber optics are common in many networks, and they’re essential to provide enough bandwidth and capability in modern digital communication. If you work in networking, you have to learn at least the basics of fiber optics.

To start today’s lesson, we can remember that fiber optics come in two modes: single and multi. Single-mode fiber does better with very long-distance communication while multimode fiber is capable of higher overall transmission rates.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Peloton has quietly removed the unlimited free-membership tier for its app less than a year after it debuted.
• Meta-owned social network Threads is finally testing a “Recent” filter to sort search results based on the most recent posts.
• Meta aannounced in a blog post that later this year it will be launching a new education product for Quest to position its VR headset as a go-to device for teaching in classrooms.
• The 2024 WNBA Draft is in the books, and, as expected, the Indiana Fever selected Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 overall pick. See all the picks here.

Happy Monday & Happy Tax Day! We hope you’ve successfully filed your taxes – and that they weren’t too complex. We hope you have a great week!

In This Issue: Spring Cleaning 🧼 | Cable Raceway | Understanding HDMI Types & Specifications | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Spring Cleaning 🧼

Happy Monday!

Happy Tax day! Just kidding, who loves taxes!? (Well maybe the folks at the IRS).

This weekend was a Spring cleaning weekend. It’s amazing how much junk we’ve accumulated over the years and it feels great to get rid of it. While the kids enjoyed the warm weather outside, my wife and I took some time to get some much-needed cleaning done. We’re still not done, and we’ll probably spend another few weekends cleaning up and organizing.

It is a bit of a chore at first, but at the end of the day, it feels great to get rid of some clutter and see all the progress that we’ve made. Do you Spring clean or is that just an old-fashioned traditional thing that folks like me still keep alive?

Cris

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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 surface! These raceways can also be used to hide and organize exposed cables to free up the area around you for a cleaner look. This raceway forms a physical pathway for cables and protects them against corrosion, humidity, heat, and other physical threats.

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Learning Center Article – Understanding HDMI Types & Specifications

High-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) is something that almost all of us recognize. It’s the de facto cable used to play video — especially for anything involving high-definition.

HDMI has been around for more than 20 years, and almost everyone has experience with it. It’s a plug-and-play type of cable, and you probably have one or more of these cables connected to a TV (or more) in your home.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Adobe released its artificial intelligence assistant through a monthly subscription plan starting at $4.99.
• Spotify has over 100 million tracks available for listeners, and the streaming audio company is increasingly investing in AI to personalize song recommendations. It recently launched AI DJ aims to help listeners move out of their comfort zone and into new music.
• Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared that the company is reducing the price of its Full Self-Driving, or FSD, package by half to $99 a month.
• Airchat is a new social media app that encourages users to “just talk.” Read more here.

Happy Friday! We hope you’ve had a great week and are looking forward to a great weekend. Do you have any exciting plans?

In This Issue: Driving Lessons Anyone?! | Cisco 7942G Two-line Unified IP Phone | Alternatives to Rack Mount Kits | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Driving Lessons Anyone?!

Happy Friday, folks!

It’s been a while since I shared an update about my daughter’s journey to becoming a driver. She’s had her Learners Permit for a while now and loves to get behind the wheel! Being the compassionate dad I am (said with a hint of sarcasm), I have her drive down roads she hasn’t driven on before. It forces her to trust her training, process all road signs, and pay attention to everything.

We’re now tackling the challenge of night driving, as the state of Georgia requires 6 hours of driving after dark. Recently, I had her drive down some back roads, and we ended up on a road where the white line at the edge was non-existent. And did I mention that it was dark? Despite these challenging conditions, she did a fantastic job. She navigated this road well, even with cars going in the opposite direction (which makes seeing the center line nearly impossible to see).

This experience reminds me of a delegation process that shows how to transfer something to another person. It contains four steps:

• Direction Phase – I Do. You Watch.
• Coaching Phase – I Do. You Help.
• Collaboration Phase – You Do. I Help.
• Empower Phase – You Do. I Watch.

Steps 2 & 3 are impractical when driving a car. Although, I sometimes wish my car had a brake pedal on the passenger side. 😀 However, when you need to train someone else on something, this process is a simple yet practical way to teach them how to do it and instill confidence in the person! It’s a method that can be applied to various situations, making it a powerful tool for empowerment.

In what ways have you helped teach someone how to drive?

Thanks,
Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

If you handle a lot of calls at your workplace, the Cisco 7942G Two Line Unified IP Phone, is a great way to stay on top of your clients’ needs. This Voice over Internet Protocol phone is powered through Ethernet instead of a landline and comes with two Ethernet ports. It includes a gray LCD display that allows you to see who is calling and manage multiple calls at once. Take advantage of frequent software upgrades and features such as speakerphone settings, headset ports, and a phone directory.

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Learning Center Article – Alternatives to Rack Mount Kits

In server settings, it’s common to use standardized racks to hold and house all of the equipment. These racks are made strong and stable. They allow you to stack all of your devices in ways that support the task and configuration at hand, and they provide safe conditions that also help you manage heat and airflow.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Students applying to Harvard College for fall 2025 admission will be required to submit standardized test scores, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced on Thursday. This new policy will be applied to the Class of 2029 admissions cycle and will be formally assessed at regular intervals.
• Buffalo Wild Wings opened its 100th Go location, which are smaller than its traditional sports bars and limited to delivery and takeout orders.
• NASA’s impressive Mars helicopter Ingenuity stumbled upon an ‘otherworldly’ site as it made its way through space over the Red Planet. Read more here.
• Apple shares climbed 4.3% on Thursday to a share price of $175.04. It is Apple’s best day since May 5, 2023.

Happy Thursday! Yesterday was Siblings Day and today it’s National Pet Day – what a week! Give an extra smooch to your four-legged (or maybe two-legged or no-legged 🤪) friends today.

In This Issue: The Magic of Disney! | Cisco 1000BASE-T SFP Module | What is LCP (Link Control Protocol) | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – The Magic of Disney!

Hello CK Family!

Last week, my family took a trip to Disney in Orlando for Spring Break! We managed to squeeze in all four parks and the weather was beautiful. There is something about Disney, just walking around, riding rides, and enjoying all the snacks… especially Mickey ice cream sandwiches!! But while I’m at Disney I’m able to truly get away and not think about all the things going on in the outside world, plus it doesn’t hurt getting in all the steps. It’s truly magical and was a much-needed vacation.

What are some of your favorite places to get away?

I hope that you enjoy the rest of your week!

Mandy

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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 an RJ-45 connector. It operates at a data transfer rate of up to 1000 megabits per second (Mbps). The transceiver supports full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet over data link. It allows to leverage of existing cabling infrastructure and avoids the cost and disruption of installing new fiber optic cables.

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Learning Center Article – What is LCP (Link Control Protocol)

As you peel back layers and get deeper into networking and theory, you have to learn about protocols. There are a lot of protocols out there. Each is designed with specific ideas in mind, and ultimately, the internet uses pretty much all of them at one point or another.

Trying to master every protocol at once would be an unreasonable undertaking, but you can consume this knowledge in smaller bites.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Nvidia announced the first AI supercomputer designed for student use, in collaboration with Georgia Tech.
• In an email to parents who supervise a child’s account, YouTube announced the introduction of a “read-only” comments option on their child’s supervised experience on YouTube.
• Microsoft will reveal new AI tools for use on PCs and in the cloud at its annual Build conference.
• Google announced that it will make several of its photo-editing tools powered by generative artificial intelligence free to all users of Google Photos.

Happy Wednesday & Happy National Siblings Day! Our siblings provide us with our biggest competition and are often our strongest source of encouragement. Be sure to take some time today to reach out to your siblings and let them know you love them (and maybe remind them of that embarrassing thing they did when they were little)!

In This Issue: Sweet Nostalgia ✨ | 42U LINIER Server Cabinet | Selecting the Right PoE Switches for Your IP Camera Network | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Sweet Nostalgia ✨

Good morning & Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having a great week.

This week has felt rather long to me and I think it’s likely because I’m really looking forward to the rest of the week. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be out of the office and heading back to my alma mater, East Carolina University. Go Pirates!

I’ll probably be having all the nostalgia for the entire weekend because I loved college and there are times when I miss it and the memories that I made! I think I’m most excited because we’re heading back and bringing our friends with us. Some of whom we haven’t seen in a while!

It’s going to be such a great time walking around campus, showing our friends who didn’t go there around, and taking our little ones with us! I can’t wait to show our little guy all the reasons why we loved/still love this place so much and reminisce on all the sweet moments we had. After all, this is where my husband and I met!

We didn’t realize that this weekend, there’s a huge event going on that might make the traffic a little wild – but we’re going to make the best of it either way!

I look forward to sharing about the sweet adventure this weekend is going to be next week.

Cheers to a great rest of the week!

Ashley

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The 3107-3-001-42 LINIER® Server Cabinet is a high-quality, resourceful solution for network servers, battery- backups, switching banks and other large-scale network equipment. The unit provides a depth of 36 inches and a height of 80.50 inches, adequate to accommodate a wide range of networking equipment. The cabinet top has cleaned and precise holes that have been pre-cut into the cabinet for the installation of fans and other ventilation equipment.

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Learning Center Article – Selecting the Right PoE Switches for Your IP Camera Network

Cameras are useful devices, and a lot of businesses need to deploy an array of them in order to keep a sharp eye on things. Usually for security reasons, a good ring of security cameras can prove invaluable.

But, connecting them and setting them up is not always simple. You have to figure out how to record what they see, how to power them, and how to manage them in general.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• NASA announced a new approach to dealing with an increasingly crowded and dangerous environment in Earth orbit with a space sustainability strategy that puts an initial emphasis on analyzing the problem rather than technologies to solve it.
• There is a record number of areas in the U.S. where the “typical” home is worth $1 million or more.
• The next eclipse is set to happen on August 23, 2044 and will appear in Greenland before becoming visible in Canada.It will be visible in only three US states: North and South Dakota and Montana.
• Google is trying to make cloud computing more affordable with a custom-built Arm-based server chip.

Happy Tuesday! What a week it’s been. We hope you got the chance to step outside yesterday and see the eclipse if you were in an area where it was visible. We’ll see it again in 2044!

In This Issue: Staycationing & a Trip to Boone, NC | DB9 Male to Male Slim Serial Coupler | All about Aruba 2530 Switches | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Staycationing & A Trip to Boone, NC

Good Morning & Happy Tuesday!

Hope everyone is feeling refreshed after Spring Break last week! I didn’t go out of town, but did spend a little time doing some fun local stuff with my nieces and nephew! We went to Topgolf which I haven’t been to in YEARS and I had totally forgotten how much fun it is! We had the best time playing the different games and practicing our swings!

We also spent some time at the mall which is always a hit. They love to ride the little train that goes throughout the mall, and we always have to make a stop on the carousel as well! It was a great week and a nice break from routine for everyone!

This weekend I’m heading to Boone, NC for a cabin stay and some hiking. I’ve never been to Boone but have only heard people talk about it in a positive light so am expecting that it’s going to be wonderful! If you’ve been, let me know some places we need to see while we’re there!

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Need to stretch your limits? Don’t buy all new cables; instead invest in some cable extenders. Our DB9 Male to Male Slim Serial Coupler allows allows the female connectors of two cables to be connected to extend your cable length. These small frame extenders are the perfect solution to saving money and saving your network.

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Learning Center Article – All about Aruba 2530 Switches

When you’re trying to find the perfect hardware for your network, you’re going to have to weigh a few things. You can get the most powerful hardware on the market, but you’ll pay a pretty penny for it.

If you want to optimize spending without skimping on performance, then you want to consider something in the range of Aruba 2530 switches. This is versatile hardware that can solve problems for many small and medium businesses, and these switches hold their own for a number of enterprise applications as well.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• In the United States, the solar eclipse’s path of totality began in Eagle Pass, Texas, at 1:27 p.m. local time and ended in Caribou, Maine, at 4:40 p.m. ET. The total eclipse was seen in 15 U.S. states. Read more here.
• Pop-Tarts is launching its very first crunchy snack, aptly named, Crunchy Poppers.
• Popular YouTube group Dude Perfect, which first rose to popularity for its basketball trick shots, has secured a significant nine-figure investment, in the range of $100 million to $300 million, from private investment firm Highmount Capital.
• Gatorade has been branching out into new categories, including unflavored water, to keep up with consumers’ changing tastes and tougher competition.