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Ashley

CK Daily – 06.11.2021

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In This Issue: Keystone Surface Mount Box, White, Spring Shutter, 1 Port | Productivity: 10 Tips for a Successful Day, Every Day | News to Start Your Day

Happy Friday! Who’s looking forward to the weekend? We’d love to hear what your weekend plans are! We hope you find some time to take some deep breaths, relax, and enjoy some time with the ones you love. 

The CK Daily – Thank you!

Happy Friday folks! As I sit here and write this post, I’m thankful for each of you who take the time to read this each and every day. Over the course of this week, we have heard from a few of you about the positive impact the CK Daily has had on you. This has been very encouraging for each of us here at CK!

One of our core values is to “make it about relationship.”  Publishing the CK Daily every day is one way that we accomplish this. We share our stories as a way to peel back the curtain at CK and let you all see inside our lives.

If any of our stories have impacted you, we’d love to hear about it! If you have something or someone that you’d like us to join with you in praying for, reply to this email and we’ll pray with you.

Chris

Product Spotlights & Updates:

Friday is here and while it’s small, this last Deal of the Week is mighty! Our Keystone Surface Mount Box, White, Sprint Shutter, 1 Port, KEYSB-1-WH provides you with the easiest way to install a network outlet & is perfect for office cubicles or business network installations!

These attractive surface mount boxes will perfectly blend into your home or office decor, and can hold a multitude of jacks including Cat5, Cat6, USB, HDMI, and other standard sized keystone jacks. The easy to install unloaded 1-Position Keystone Surface Mount Box is one of the best ways to install a network outlet without a lot of fuss in applications where putting a giant hole for a wall plate isn’t needed. It’s perfect for office cubicles or installations where the cable is run along a baseboard. The surface mount box also protects and hides your network connections. The unit mounts with included 2-sided tape or screws and also includes a set of snap-in identifiers for quick reference on the port; red for data and blue for phone.

Enjoy 30% off through the end of the weekend! Grab yours today!

Productivity: 10 Tips for a Successful Day, Every Day – Sprout New Media

Productivity often comes in waves, with days or weeks of focus and progress, but then there are the times when no matter what you do, you feel stuck. You can change this pattern, by setting yourself up for success.

Want to have a more productive, focused day, consistently? Try these tried-and-true tips.

1. Prepare for your day the night before.

Pull together your workout gear, work clothes, shoes, lunch, books, packages to mail, etc. before you go to bed. Pack your bags as much as you can and program the coffeemaker to turn on when you get up. When you get everything ready to go for the next day before you go to bed, you’ll have a much calmer morning because you can get up and go.

2. Get enough sleep

It’s been proven that people who don’t get enough sleep suffer from health problems, lack of focus, irritability, and mid-day slumps. The ideal amount of sleep is 7-8 hours, but it varies for everyone. Still, it’s not recommended to go with less than 6 hours for more than a day or two. So don’t stay up late, turn off the electronics an hour before bed to calm your brain, and make sure your bedroom is dark and quiet.

3. Move your body when you get up

Exercise is a fantastic way to start the day. You start off in a place of power, your blood is flowing, and you feel unstoppable. An added bonus is that once you’re done, you’ve already checked something off your to-do list. Nothing like starting the day with a celebration!

4. Practice Mindfulness

Meditation can do wonders to put you in a calm frame of mind before you run off to work. When you establish a daily practice, you’ll find that you feel calmer, more focused, and more patient.

5. Eat breakfast before you jump into your work

After 8 or more hours without eating, your brain and your body need fuel. It’s tempting to jump into work with just a cup of coffee in your belly but caffeine alone isn’t enough. When you’re preparing for your day the night before, try whipping up some overnight oats, or put some protein powder in a shaker bottle, ready and waiting — just add water.

6. Eat frequently and drink lots of water throughout your day

Breakfast is important, but so is lunch, healthy snacks, and hydration.

7. Batch your time.

Time batching is an efficient way to get a lot done in a short amount of time. Think of it as productivity on steroids. Block out a few hours, turn off distractions, and let your productive self take over. Use this time to brainstorm, do some planning and creative problem solving, write, etc. Spend focused, uninterrupted time on your creative work and you’ll be amazed at what you can get done.

8. Be present and unplug.

This is perhaps the hardest thing to do, with mobile devices at our fingertips 24/7. Work demands will always be there, and if you always have your nose in your phone, you’re missing out on life. Give your friends and family your full attention. Look around you. Look up once in awhile. Real-life experiences and connections are better than any picture on Instagram.

9. Get organized and have time-saving systems

Having efficient systems for everything you do will save you time, energy, attention, and money.

10. Take breaks when you need them.

Whether you use something like the Pomodoro Technique, practice time blocking, or just follow your own energy rhythms, it’s important to take breaks throughout the day. Your brain needs a break, as does your body. Grab some water, step outside for a few minutes and get some fresh air. If getting outside isn’t an option, even a short walk down the hallway to get your blood moving and change your scenery can help a lot.

Want to read the full article from Sprout New Media? You can find it here!

Today’s News to Start Your Day:

  • As of this morning, in the US, active COVID cases are on a decline and are reported at 5,383,419.
  • The G-7 summit begins today. President Biden and other world leaders will discuss vaccine access, ransomware, climate change, and more.
  • Microsoft is developing streaming devices that people will be able to plug into their TVs to use its Netflix-like cloud gaming service.
  • JBS, the largest beef supplier in the world, paid the ransomware hackers who breached its computer networks about $11 million.
  • Some early risers in the northern hemisphere may have been lucky enough to see a rare eclipsed sunrise known as the “ring of fire.” Skywatchers from New York to parts of Asia were able to see the ring-shaped or partial eclipse of the sun. The eclipse began in Ontario, Canada at sunrise and ended in southeastern Siberia. The “ring of fire” lasted for about an hour and 40 minutes and was only partially seen by people in the U.S.

CK Daily – 06.10.2021

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In This Issue: 3M LC-LC OM3 10 Gig 50/125 Multimode Duplex Fiber Patch Cable | 10 Healthy Habits We’re Keeping After the Pandemic | News to Start Your Day

Happy National Iced Tea Day! I think the biggest debate of all time is who has the best sweet tea? Who’s your pick? McDonald’s, Chick-Fil-A, Bojangles, your favorite gas station, grandma? The options to choose from are endless!

The CK Daily – Stay Focused on the Right Things

You ever have those weeks where everything feels like a struggle? I mean you have all these great plans for the week and feel really good about it then when the week gets here and you are actually living through it nothing goes as planned? Yeah, this has been one of those weeks for me.

I have some friends coming to stay with me from Germany for the month of July so I had all these plans to get stuff taken care of around the house, knock out some personal projects that I had been working on, had high hopes to knock out some projects at work, and then I feel like everything that could go “bump in the night” has gone wrong. (Well, not everything but you get what I am talking about.) I got sick, the dog got sick, and threw up everywhere, I have had internet issues at the house all week, there is an issue with getting the new fence up, etc. It has been a crazy week already and it just wears you out.

I was thinking yesterday morning, when I was debating on whether to take a sick/PTO day to rest and get over the sickness, about how many “issues” I see right in front of me right now. I felt like I got a gentle nudge from God that I was focusing on the wrong things. I was focusing so much on the mountains right in front of me instead of the valleys past the mountains. (There is always some sort of valley when you get past a mountain.)

I have a lot to be thankful for and grateful for even in the middle of issues, problems, and when things don’t go as “planned”.

– I have good health even with the sickness.

– I have a nice home to do all of the projects in.

– I have a phenomenal job with phenomenal people that I get to do what I love to do, even if I don’t get the projects done right then.

– My dog is one of the best you could have and he generally has good health too and will again after he gets better.

– I have the money to be able to take him to the vet to get better.

– I have an awesome group of friends that circle around me when I get depressed or anxious about things.

The list can go on and on. It can be difficult at times when we are walking through stuff and it IS difficult to keep our eyes, mind, and heart focused on the right things. Plus, it is not me that has to figure everything out. I have someone that is better at it than me, and He sees the bigger picture and past the mountains. A buddy of mine sent me this verse as encouragement and a reminder:

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:34 MSG

I know for me, it is very difficult to get out of my own head about stuff especially when it feels like things are snowballing downhill. I have to constantly remind myself that God’s still in control and He knows what I need when I need it better than I do.

I hope this is an encouragement to you today with no matter what you are walking through are dealing with. I know it was, at the very least, helpful for me to be able to type this out and share it with you today.

Have a great Thursday and stay focused on the right things.

Jason

Product Spotlights & Updates:

Happy Thursday! Today’s spotlight is the 3M LC-LC OM3 10 Gig 50/125 Multimode Duplex Fiber Patch Cable, FMD5G-LCLC-03.

Fiber optic cabling is the medium of choice for longer-distance and challenging cabling runs. These cables are thinner than copper patch cords and immune to EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) making them perfect for riser runs and uplink cables.

Inside these cables, you will find three basic layers. Starting from the inside, you have the core which is surrounded by the cladding. Both are protected with the jacket on the outside. Multi-mode cables have a thicker “core size”. The core size is simply the thickness of the optical fiber inside the cladding. The cladding is material that surrounds that core which basically serves as the boundary for the signal, keeping the light refined to the core and not allowing it to escape.

Here are a few words from our customers!

Yoarick C. stated, “Run these cables from my basement 24 port switch to the second Floor 16 port switch on my home to create an aggregate port for the switches. Works perfectly!”

Matthew C. wrote, “The O3M came well packaged. The connection is good and tight. Was pulled through 100′ of innerduct with no issues. Overall I am very pleased.”

10 Healthy Habits We’re Keeping After the Pandemic – LifeSavvy

Just because most of us are finally returning to a normal routine doesn’t mean we have to ditch everything we did during those COVID lockdowns. Here are 10 habits that it might be good to keep up long after the pandemic is history.

With the constant changes in 2020, many of us adopted new habits to protect our physical and mental health, and generally, just to keep ourselves (and everyone else) safe. As the world reopens and we let go of some of the stricter practices, there are a few things that it would be a good idea to keep doing.

Cooking at Home

From the early pandemic days when everyone was baking bread to the lack of dining options for several months, many of us have been making and eating more meals at home than ever before. While it’s great to be able to get takeout and even enjoy in-person dining again as the world heads back toward normal, we shouldn’t abandon the benefits of cooking at home!

Making More Time for Hobbies

Picked up a new hobby (or two, or three) during the pandemic? Don’t let it lapse as life goes back to normal! It’s easy to feel like every moment of the day has to be “productive,” but it’s just as important to take time for things that just make you happy.

Exercising between Tasks

When the pandemic shut down gyms and fitness classes, most of us turned to some form of at-home exercise. Although those in-person options are available again, exercising at home can be a more flexible and less intimidating option for many of us!

Reaching Out More to Friends

With in-person hangouts off the table for several months, the barriers to reaching out to people who maybe aren’t in your immediate geographic area felt lower. Zoom and phone calls will still be there after the pandemic ends, so continue to take advantage of them.

Personal Care Routines

Don’t neglect those personal care routines that you might have picked up during this past year—in fact, as we return to “normal” busy lives, it’s even more important to take time for a little pampering! It doesn’t have to be a big, expensive, fancy spa day—it can be something as simple as taking five minutes for a skincare routine instead of just splashing on water and calling it good.

Giving Yourself a Break

There’s been a real push during the pandemic to be a little kinder to everyone, including ourselves. So, give yourself a bit more grace when it comes to expectations and life stress. This is one of the most important takeaways that we should all carry into the new normal.

Going for Walks

One of the simplest ways to boost your mental and physical health is to take a walk. Stroll through a park, around your neighborhood, or anywhere that you enjoy and feel safe. It gets you up and moving, gives you a chance to breathe some fresh air, and lets you take a few minutes away from the stresses of daily life.

Keeping Houseplants

Lots of folks became plant parents over the last year! Whether you dipped your toe in with one or two plants or have pretty much turned your living space into a greenhouse, keeping houseplants is a habit that can make your life more pleasant at any time.

Relaxation Techniques

We’ve all spent the past year incredibly stressed out and on edge, which has, for many people, meant looking for techniques to reduce that anxiety or at least keep it manageable. In terms of both physical and mental health, maintaining those stress-relief habits is one of the most important things that you can do long-term.

Setting Boundaries

If nothing else, the last year has taught us all a lot about our priorities. We all had to get good at rescheduling or outright declining things over the last year. It’s helpful to remember that it’s healthy to have and maintain boundaries in our lives. Stick with them, even if you no longer have the excuse of the pandemic.

Want to read the full article from LifeSavvy? You can find it here. 

Today’s News to Start Your Day:

  • As of this morning, in the US, active COVID cases are on a decline and are reported at 5,397,142.
  • NASA has designed a new spacesuit for the next lunar mission in 2024. Learn more about it here. 
  • Moderna has asked the FDA to expand the emergency use of the Covid-19 vaccine in adolescents ages 12 to 17.
  • 777 Sarbonne Road in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles recently hit the market with an asking price of $87,777,777. Many of the home’s architectural details were designed in measurements that are multiples of seven, and it took seven years to renovate the property. Check out some photos of the renovations here!
  • Apple’s iOS 15 is coming to iPhones this fall, and it includes a lot of fun new FaceTime, iMessage, Safari, Wallet, and privacy updates. You’ll be able to watch Disney+ with friends over FaceTime, for example. And, later this year, you’ll be able to add your driver’s license in some states so you can move through TSA at the airport faster.

CK Daily – 06.09.2021

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In This Issue: Deals of the Week | PoE vs. PoE+ vs UPoE: What’s the best switch to meet your network needs? | News to Start Your Day

Any Donald Duck fans out there? Donald Duck made his first debut on screen on June 9, 1934 (87 years ago!!)! Usually seen wearing a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie, he is most remembered for his semi-intelligible speech along with his mischievous and irritable personality. 

The CK Daily – Balance Life & Enjoy the Journey

Happy Wednesday!

Unlike last week, this week is flying by! Our teammate, Amy took an extended vacation to visit her family over the last 2 weeks and she returned back to CK yesterday. Boy oh Boy, are we glad to have her back! As she was enjoying her time off, as she should, I began to think how much of an impact she had on my work life. During our team meeting’s we would announce the countdown until she returned and shared our sentiments on how much we missed her.

Here at CablesAndKits, we believe in balancing your life and enjoying the journey and are heavy promoters of our team members to take time for themselves outside of CK. This belief is one of the many reasons I love working for CablesAndKits.

Do you enjoy any cool perks at your job? I would love to hear how your company creates and maintains culture!

Shanyce

Product Spotlights & Updates:

Summer is here and the Deals of the Week this week are kicking up the heat!

This week’s DOW include the Cisco 2960 Series 8 Port Gigabit Switch, Cisco IP Phone Power Supply, Cisco Smart Serial Crossover Cable, Keystone Surface Mount Box, and the Yellow CAT5e Ethernet Patch Cable. Pretty sweet, right?!

What are you waiting for? Get in on one (or all!) of these great deals before the week is up!

PoE vs PoE+ vs UPoE: What’s the best switch to meet your network needs? – CK Learning Center

If you’re new to networking, you might be wondering what in the world is the difference between PoE, PoE+ and UPoE switches. And, why should I care?

With numerous variations of series, port counts, sizes, and types of switches out there, it’s challenging for the non-technical elite to make sense of it all. So, we’ve rounded up some knowledge and insights to help you understand what a PoE switch is and how the three main versions differ. By the time you finish this post, you’ll be mentally sparring with the best CTO’s out there.

Power-over-Ethernet, often referred to as PoE, is a system used to distribute data and power to a targeted network of devices via safe Ethernet cabling. It uses basic copper cables and a switch to send power to the network. Recently, PoE+ has also become popular by boosting the amount of power that can run through the system. Additionally, UPoE was developed by Cisco to make another jump in power delivery through PoE networks. Use this guide to help you determine which one best meets your needs.

What is PoE?

PoE uses 802.3af, which is the IEEE standard. The 15.4W/port is compatible with Gigabit Ethernet but not with Cisco inline power since its power negotiation process is different. PoE, as a designation, is the first form of power through ethernet lines that was commercially available. It is the base line, and it is often less expensive than its more powerful counterparts.

Where To Use PoE

PoE provides enough power for most wireless access points, surveillance cameras, and IP phones. It is most often used in places where it isn’t sustainable to use universal serial buses or AC power due to inconvenience or expenses. Another benefit of using PoE is that the power transfers over more cable than what USB can handle.

Benefits of Choosing PoE

PoE is the simple choice for those who need an easy setup for basic networking. It uses standard copper Ethernet cables, making it as easy as setting up a regular network. The only special equipment you’ll need is a switch that is PoE-compliant. By powering multiple devices over a single network, you eliminate the need for separate cables and AC/DC converters for each device, which makes the entire system easier to maintain. PoE is flexible in that you can install it anywhere you need to and even move entire systems as your needs change. The system is highly reliable, allowing for constant availability. Finally, using PoE allows you to save money on network installation and energy management.

Want to keep reading more about PoE vs. PoE+ vs. UPoE? You can find the full article on the CK Learning Center here!

Today’s News to Start Your Day:

  • As of this morning, in the US, active COVID cases are on a decline and are reported at 5,408,951.
  • The FDA approved the first new Alzheimer’s drug in almost two decades. 
  • The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere reached 419 parts per million in May, the highest level in more than four million years. 
  • The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eased travel recommendations for more than 110 countries and territories, including Japan just ahead of the Olympics. The CDC’s new ratings include 61 nations that were lowered from its highest “Level 4” rating that discouraged all travel to recommending travel for fully vaccinated individuals
  • NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has defied expectations on Mars once again, flying 350 feet south to land in totally new territory. For the second time, the tissue-box-sized drone flew to a new landing site, hovered above ground that its navigation cameras had never seen before, then gently lowered itself to touchdown. Check out this image of its landing!

CK Daily – 06.08.2021

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In This Issue: Cisco 8800/8900/9900 IP Phone Power Supply | Download Problems? 9 Ways to Troubleshoot and Fix Them | News to Start Your Day

Happy National Best Friends Day! Whether you’ve known them your whole life or they’re more recently acquired, best friends make the tough times bearable, fun times memorable, and memorable times priceless. Today is the perfect day to let your best friend know just how much they mean to you!

The CK Daily – Meaningful Spots

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great weekend! I mentioned last week that my nephew just turned 7, and I am coming to realize that this is a super fun age! I should probably note that I don’t have any kids of my own, so instead, I am a super involved aunt!

Over the weekend, I went up to the north Georgia mountains with my brother, sister-in-law, and the kids. My grandmother owns a small home on a few acres up there and is generous enough to let the family enjoy it whenever we can get a free weekend! When I was growing up, my parents would take us up to the mountain home and I just LOVED it. There was so much space to run around and play. My brothers and I loved making trails in the woods, building “forts,” and letting our imaginations soar in the outdoors. There was also a beautiful creek that we got to play in for many years until a hurricane hit. The storm caused a lot of downed trees and debris which became a haven for snakes, so our parents put a stop to our exploring the creek for a while, and then some time passed and we just never went back.

Well, over the weekend we did go back, and this time with my nephew! It was so much fun hiking through the woods with him. He has become so chatty lately, and I love it! Hearing all his random thoughts and seeing him light up in wonder made the adventure so much fun! He loved being in the creek every bit as much as we did when we were his age. There was something truly special about getting to share a place that holds so many childhood memories for me with him. I hope to make plenty more fun memories for him and my nieces (when they are older) in this same spot!

Do you have any fun traditions or meaningful locations that you have passed down to the next generation in your family? I’d love to hear!

Rebecca

Product Spotlights & Updates:

Happy Tuesday! Today we’re highlighting the Cisco 8800/8900/9900 IP Phone Power Supply, CP-PWR-CUB-4. These are replacement power supplies for the Cisco CP-88XX, CP-89XX, and CP-99XX series IP phones.

You can’t go wrong with Cisco power supplies from CablesAndKits. Our Cisco Aironet Series External Power Supply is the perfect replacement for Cisco CP-88XX, CP-89XX, and CP-99XX Series IP Phones. This external power supply will ensure your connection never fails when you need it most. Shop all our Cisco accessories and equipment to outfit your entire network. All your purchases with us come individually bagged and labeled so you can easily store and retrieve your stock.

This week, enjoy 35% off this product this week!

Download Problems? 9 Ways to Troubleshoot and Fix Them – HowToGeek

Most issues that you will encounter while trying to download a file have simple solutions. Whether you’re using a computer, a smartphone, or a games console, here are nine things to try the next time you have an issue.

Check Your Device’s Free Space

A lack of free disk space is going to cause download problems, regardless of which device you’re using. While most devices will check for adequate disk space before starting the transfer, some don’t, and your download will fail for seemingly no reason.

Test Your Internet Speed

If your internet speed is abnormally slow, your download might not start at all. This is especially true if you have lots of different devices on your network, which are all fighting for the same small amount of bandwidth.

Stop Files Opening Instead of Downloading

A common issue that pops up when you try to download a file is caused by how your internet browser handles certain file types (for example, PDF documents). You might want to save the document to your device, but the browser has other ideas and keeps opening it instead. In this instance, you should right-click on the download link and select “save as” instead.

Pause and Unpause the Download

Sometimes, all you need to do is stop and start the transfer to get things moving. This is especially true on older game consoles like the PlayStation 4, where the trick can be used to speed up downloads that have stalled.

Try Another Web Browser

Some websites simply don’t work correctly in certain browsers. This is especially true for smaller, niche browsers that fall outside of the big four (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari).

Allow Pop-Up Windows, Cookies, and JavaScript

Sometimes, when a download won’t start, it’s because your browser is blocking a pop-up window or cookie that the service relies upon. Most browsers will notify you in the address bar that a pop-up window has been blocked (although some do it quietly in the background).

Windows Users: Check Your Antivirus

On Windows, you should use an antivirus tool to scan for malware. These tools may sometimes block downloads—often because the download is malicious.

Console Download? Close Any Open Games

In the case of the PS4, the system restricts download bandwidth when a game is running. Although this behavior is a little erratic and doesn’t seem to apply to all games, it’s especially likely to happen with online or “live service” games.

Still No Luck? Cancel and Try Again

The nuclear option is to cancel your download and try again from the start. This might not be your first choice depending on the size of the download and how much progress you’re giving up, and it might not fix the issue, either.

Find the full article from HowToGeek here. 

Today’s News to Start Your Day:

  • As of this morning, in the US, active COVID cases are on a decline and are reported at 5,436,877.
  • Ford unveiled the compact Maverick pickup as the smallest vehicle in its highly profitable truck lineup. It will be the first pickup truck in America with a standard gas-electric hybrid engine when it goes on sale this fall starting at just under $20,000. Compact pickups are an untapped and unproven market in the U.S.
  • The first item from rapper Kanye West’s highly anticipated Yeezy Gap line sold out after a few hours. A $200 bright blue nylon puffer jacket was released. The unisex coat will be shipped later this fall. 
  • WWDC announcements showed that Apple’s privacy strategy is now part of its products: Privacy was mentioned as part of nearly every new feature and got stage time of its own. New features include ways to stop email tracking, burner emails, and a VPN competitor that obscures IP addresses. Apple is also using its strength in handling user data to add features that use sensitive data to apps like Wallet and Health.
  • Kroger will hold a hiring event on Thursday to fill 10,000 jobs. The positions will be for the grocer’s retail, e-commerce, pharmacy, manufacturing, and logistical operations segments, across all its brands. The company announced plans to raise its average worker wage in March after criticism for lowering them during the coronavirus pandemic.

CK Daily – 06.07.2021

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In This Issue: Cisco 2960 Series 8 Port Gigabit Switch | Best Practices for Cable Management in Data Centers | News to Start Your Day

Today we look at the device that revolutionized the home movie-watching experience. June 7th is National VCR Day, where we recognize the video cassette recorder, a device that, in its time, was a marvel of technology!

The CK Daily – The Opportunity to Do Something Right

Happy Monday, CK Fam!!

Ever driven past someone who is walking down the road and had your heart tell you to offer them a ride? What about help feed the food disadvantaged? I have.

Sometimes we come up with every excuse in the book to avoid meeting these situations head-on. We are called to do it, but our earthly experiences or something even smaller tries to prevent us from outreach to our fellow humans.

This is a PSA to all of the readers here to tell you to take a chance. Volunteer your time. Talk to your church leaders to get involved. Message your local food bank. Meet new people in different walks of life. Minister to them. Smile with them. Love them. Do something.

I hope we are all ready to have a great week and seize those opportunities when they arise or make them arise so that you can get involved.

Thanks all – have a blessed day,

Corey

Product Spotlights & Updates:

Happy Monday! Today we are featuring the Cisco 2960 Series switch with 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports and SFP Gigabit port.

Flexible, secure, and borderless, the Cisco 2960 series of switches are designed to meet the needs of today’s mid-market and branch office networking needs. These Layer 2 switches are equipped with Cisco’s LAN base software and come in an array of configurations, including 10/100 desktop connectivity, dual-purpose uplinks, and PoE in supporting models.

The WS-C2960G-8TC-L ships with 7, 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, and a dual-purpose uplink port (dual-purpose uplinks have one SFP port and one 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, one port active at a time).

Grab one this week as part of our Deals of the Week and get 10% OFF!

Best Practices for Cable Management – CK Learning Center

Every network administrator in the world has a horror story about cable management. In data centers, those horror stories grow into genuine nightmares. If enough people work on a system for a long enough period of time, the cables will eventually turn into some type of Ethernet vine monster. Only strict adherence to cable management practices can prevent this disaster. The following best practices assume you already know some of the basics. Instead, they’re aimed to help you avoid subtler missteps that occur frequently in modern data centers.

Plan for Growth

Everyone says this. Everyone acknowledges. It’s still common for data centers to struggle with growing pains. This is the first and most important principle in cable management and network design because it applies to everything else you do. It is easiest to see when planning space for additional cables.

The challenge is finding the sweet spot. If you leave too much space for growth, you’re hurting efficiency. If there is too little, you hit major challenges with future upgrades. The safest and most reasonable rule to follow is that of 50 percent. If your initial design and subsequent add-ons always plan around 50-percent growth, you should stay close to the golden sweet spot.

The other component of planning for growth applies to equipment selection. As you already know, everything in your data center will eventually be obsolete. The most efficient way to manage the cost and labor of upgrades is to plan around cabling. Replacing or upgrading major pathways is the most labor-intensive work in a data center. So, any time that labor is required, it should be accompanied with cable upgrades. Spend the money on the most up-to-date cables and connectors, and you’ll save a lot of pain down the road.

Plan in General

Growth is important, but you need a good plan for the center to function correctly. So much goes into network planning that covering it all here is impossible, but cable management needs to be a central focus in general planning. Modular and gridded support structures enable you to access cables at any point, and it makes replacement and management much simpler. In general, you want an initial plan or add-on to your center to follow a gridded approach. There should never be any doubt as to where any given cable can be accessed for any plausible reason.

Cable Stress

You know the basics of cable management already. Labels and color-coding help to keep track of everything and cables should not be arranged willy-nilly. And, while you already understand that stress is bad for cables, many network engineers still allow too much in their systems. The key to managing cable stress is the same as doing any job in the world: use the right tools.

Want to read more about Cable Management in Data Centers? Continue reading the rest of this article from the CK Learning Center here!

Today’s News to Start Your Day:

  • As of this morning, in the US, active COVID cases are on a decline and are reported at 5,475,709.
  • Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger flight of his space company Blue Origin, which the company plans to launch on July 2. Bezos’ brother Mark will join him, as will the winner of an auction being held for one of the seats. The highest bid stands at $2.8 million as of this morning. 
  • Almost half of restaurants are operating with 20% less staff than usual. As restaurants struggle to find workers, some managers use on-demand hiring apps to cover short-term staffing needs. 
  • Bitcoin’s price fell Friday morning after Elon Musk posted a tweet suggesting he’s fallen out of love with the world’s top cryptocurrency.
  • David Dushman, the last surviving soldier who helped liberate Auschwitz-Birkenau, died on Saturday at the age of 98. Dushman helped free prisoners from the notorious Nazi concentration camp as a soldier for the Soviet Red Army in World War II.

CK Daily – 06.04.2021

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In This Issue:2m LC-LC OM4 Premium Multimode Duplex 50/125 Fiber Optic Cable | Find Your Courage | News to Start Your Day

Head on over to the closest donut shop near you because today is National Donut Day! The best day of the year, right?! What’s your favorite kind of donut? Are you a simple glaze fan, custard-filled, chocolate with sprinkles…the options are endless! 

The CK Daily – Break the Monotony of the Day

One of the perks of working from home over the past year or so is the ability to set my own work hours and take mental breaks during the day when I need to. I mean we could do this before in the office but it is tons easier when you are working from home and I personally believe it has helped my mental and emotional clarity in the process. I usually start work early in the morning, around 6:30 (this morning at 4am), then take the dog for a walk and work out about 10:30, then lunch later on and try and wrap up my day around 4:00 when I can. It really has been a huge help for me in balancing work, health, and keeping the dog happy with his walks.

I have learned as I have gotten older that we have to break away from the daily grind even in the middle of it to get clarity of mind and sometimes reset. Getting away from the desk, getting outside, working out, or playing a game have been my go-to’s. Here lately I have been combining the workout and “playing a game” by using my Oculus. If you are not familiar with it…it is CRAZY! It is a Virtual Reality gaming system but has tons of workout stuff, travel videos, learning systems, etc. You can literally travel the world from your living room and be immersed in it. It is unreal. The workouts are intense too. It is like working with multiple trainers from the comfort of your home. (No travel time to the gym!) It works great when you can’t get outside to walk or run or just don’t have the time to. Of course, I do play some games on there as well (Beat Saber and Top Golf are my favorites), but those are just as much of a workout as the real workout sessions. Not sure who this lady is that posted this mixed reality video of Beat Saber on YouTube, but I am nowhere near that good! Chris, the CK President, has one as well, and to say our competitive sides come out when tracking active calories burned during the day might be an understatement.

So, what’s your go-to thing to do to break up the monotony of your workday or just your day in general to maybe get some exercise or relax mentally?

Also, if you have an Oculus, what are your favorite games? I need some new ones to play. haha!

Jason

Product Spotlights & Updates:

Happy Friday! Looking forward to the weekend? Us too! We’ve got our final spotlight of the week for you this week, 2m LC-LC OM4 Premium Multimode Duplex 50/125 Fiber Optic Cable, PM4DLCLC02.

All of our premium cables are made with Corning ultra-pure glass fibers which ensure the highest degree of strength and purity to give you low attenuation and low signal loss for your whole network. Corning leads the industry in product quality and innovation, and we have brought these strengths into our premium cables.

Our premium OM4 fiber cables were created with those challenging fiber runs and environments in mind. Bend insensitive fiber (BIF) will transmit light with minimal loss even with bending and twisting beyond the normal bend radius of basic fiber cables. The ring of refraction material around the glass reflects light that is lost back into the core.

These OM4 cables allow you to quickly reverse polarity while in the field without the use of any special tools to ensure the correct fiber mapping for optimal data transmission, with fewer cables, in your high-speed, high-density data center space.

Enjoy 25% off these this week! Grab them before it’s too late!

Find Your Courage – The Encouragement Project

Todays Friday encouragement is from the Encouragement Project. You can find it here!

When you are short of courage, even the smallest bits, there’s an antidote for this condition – something you might never consider: share the courage you do have.

Instead of turning away from something or someone who needs more of us that we think we can give, take a moment and listen more deeply. This applies as much to oters as it does to ourselves.

Listen to yourself and wonder what is making you move away. Listen for what is possible and what someone might not be seeing about what is possible for them. Inquire of yourself what is causing fear?

Next, remember the courage you have had in the past. Courage that many others might not have shown in similar circumstances.

A friend called me the other night to tell me about a ridiculous circumstance where one of her kids was told he probably wouldn’t graduate because he hadn’t handed in some of his work.

After many questions, it turned out that there was only one assignment and the completion of that was negotiated. Throughout the whole situation, this boy whether intentionally or unintentionally was treated as being purposefully lacking in responsibility. Because the educators present had been good learners in school environments, they never considered how difficult it might be for a child who was on a different learning curve. A child who had feelings of frustration, felt he was stupid, and maybe even worthless. It’s hard to hold your head up when you feel like this.

Her son did an exit interview with his learning support teacher as a final assignment that focused on his experience at his high school.  He expressed all of his doubts and frustrations with himself and his difficulty in learning at school. The one thing that saved him was getting into an auto repair program- not everyone at that school was asleep. Reading it, his mother cried.

Most of his teachers never stopped to see that he was a child who learned with his hands, it never occurred to them that success is getting the A to some but can have many different meanings to others. It never entered their heads that it might be a good idea to help this young man find his gifts and for them to find ways to appreciate them although they were different than their own. They stepped away from all of the possibilities for a life well-lived and chose, instead to default to criticism noticing everything he lacked.

Many years ago, PBS made a film called How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. City Workshop – F.A.T. stood for frustration, anxiety and tension caused by the existence of different learning styles.

They filled a classroom with teachers, counselors, reading specialists, and other educational professionals. They were given a lesson to do but the materials that they worked on were made to look like they looked to children with learning disabilities. After a very short time, many of these participants were in tears. For the first time, they started to realize how difficult it is to be in a class when you learn differently than the others.

Today, when you find yourself telling someone you don’t have enough time, or money, or knowledge or connections, maybe you could listen a little longer. Maybe you could share the courage you have today with someone who might need to borrow a little for the time being. You aren’t committing to a lifetime of support – really just a few extra minutes – your choice.

Each of us has the chance to make an immense impact on other lives every single day. When you choose to believe this, you find courage you didn’t know you had, your awareness grows and things take on a more brilliant hue.

Today’s News to Start Your Day:

  • As of this morning, in the US, active COVID cases are on a decline and are reported at 5,537,160.
  • Twitter has launched its first subscription service Twitter Blue. It is designed for power users who are willing to pay a monthly fee for exclusive features.
  • NASA’s Juno spacecraft came within 645 miles of the surface of Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede. The flyby will be the closest a spacecraft has come to the solar system’s largest natural satellite since NASA’s Galileo spacecraft made its penultimate close approach back on May 20, 2000.
  • Google already allows Android users to opt-out of personalized ads, but software developers may still access to the user’s Advertising ID, a unique string of characters that identifies the user’s device, for purposes like measuring app usage. Starting late this year, if a user has opted out of personalized ads, the Advertising ID will not be available.
  • The team behind NASA’s InSight Mars lander has come up with an innovative way to boost the spacecraft’s energy at a time when its power levels have been falling. The lander’s robotic arm trickled sand near one solar panel, helping the wind to carry off some of the panel’s dust. The result was a gain of about 30 watt-hours of energy per sol, or Martian day.