CK Daily Updates

Happy Monday! We hope you had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed some beautiful weather. Spring is in full swing bringing some of the highest pollen counts in quite some time! Do you deal with some gnarly allergies?! How do you conquer them?

In This Issue: Camping Adventures! | Cisco Meraki Cloud Managed Switch | All About 100G Transceivers and Uses in Data Centers | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Camping Adventures!

Happy Monday!

This weekend was quite a bit better than last weekend. We were able to get a lot of things done including some much-needed Spring cleaning. We also started to get things prepared for our first-ever family camping trip coming up in just a few days. This will be a first for our family of four and I’m definitely looking forward to it. We’re only camping for three days at a local campground on Lake Lanier, about 15 minutes away from our home. If anything crazy happens, home isn’t too far away.

I’m hoping it will be a good experience for the kids, my seven-year-old is excited about it and my two-year-old just goes with the flow. There’s a bit of pressure on making this camping trip successful because it will determine future trips. We won’t be camping in a camper, but rather in tents, so that will add to the challenge. We anticipate a bit of rain and perhaps a thunderstorm on the first night, if the weather gets too bad, we’ve set up a contingency to camp in our minivan instead of the tent. I’ve always enjoyed camping as a kid and camping trips as a boy scout, I’m hoping to pass this love of the outdoors to my children. Do you have any tent camping tips?

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Meraki MS225-48FP is a cloud-managed access layer switch that features (48) 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as (4) 10G SFP+ uplinks. This switch supports both virtual stacking and physical stacking (compatible with MS210 series switches). Each switch includes dual stacking interfaces with up to 80 Gbps of stacking bandwidth. As with all Meraki switches, this switch allows for simple management, zero-touch provisioning, and features various security enhancements. Get excellent performance with a switching capacity of 176 Gbps.

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Learning Center Article – All About 100G Transceivers and Uses in Data Centers

As networking continues to evolve, it has become apparent that data centers are going to do all of the heavy lifting, regardless of who the network serves. In fact, that’s already the case. Networking hubs handle virtually all digital traffic before requests eventually filter down to individual users. Because of this, data center networking is only going to demand more from its hardware and design. Meeting the needs today and tomorrow will require 100G transceivers. This guide was designed to help you better understand and navigate the world of these transceivers.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• More than 9,000 U.S. flights were delayed over the weekend. Southwest Airlines was the hardest hit and had started Saturday with a backend technical problem. Air traffic control slowed or paused traffic in Florida on Saturday due to storms.
• The NFL says it has a plan to grow its international business to $1 billion annually and attract its next set of fans. The league projects it will attract 50 million consumers internationally over the next 10 years. The league is pushing for flag football to be included in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
• While many people hope to retire at 62, Social Security doesn’t pay full benefits until as late as age 67. That normal retirement age could get pushed even higher based on how lawmakers choose to address the program’s solvency issues.
• Amazon has slashed the price of AirPods 2 and Pro as of today. Snag some before this deal is gone!

Have you heard the news?! From this day forward, we will be selling baked goods and breakfast bowls, and shall henceforth be known as BaglesAndGrits! APRIL FOOLS! Tell us your best April Fools prank!

In This Issue: We’re hiring! | TP-Link Gigabit SFP to 1000Base-T Fiber Converter | What does 5G mean for business networks? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – What feeds you?

Happy Friday, folks!

The subject line is NOT an April Fool’s joke! Last week, Shanyce shared that she is leaving CablesAndKits. While we are sad that she’s leaving CK, we’re excited for her and the role she’s heading into! Craig Haynie, the CEO of CablesAndKits, said years ago that his goal for us as a company is to be a springboard for the team members. We want to positively impact their lives and see them have a positive impact wherever they are. Sometimes that will be with us, and other times it won’t be.

We now have an open role of Customer Service Manager that we need to fill. We are looking for an individual that will be an internal champion for the customer! And they will be leading a team of customer service reps. Please share this link if you know someone who would be an excellent fit for us.

Since it’s also April Fool’s day, I cannot miss the opportunity to share something funny. Yakima released the SkyBox OhMega cargo box. It will provide you need some extra storage for your road trip, but be sure to read all the product details!

Have a great weekend!

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The MC220L SFP to 1000Base-T media converter is used to interconnect 1000Base-T to 1000Base-SX/LX/LH single-mode or multimode fiber cable within an existing network. This converter is backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee and comes with our lifetime warranty!

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Learning Center Article – What does 5G mean for business networks?

There is a lot of technology generating excitement for more applications than we could hope to name. One central theme to virtually all of that technology is an increased demand for data and the need for higher bandwidth for connectivity. More devices than ever are actively communicating, and they are placing massive burdens on existing infrastructure.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Amazon’s Alexa will start telling some users when items they’ve had an eye on are about to be on sale.
• Check your pantry. Roughly 161,692 pounds of Skippy Peanut Butter have been voluntarily recalled by the company because some jars may contain small bits of stainless steel from manufacturing equipment.
• Twitter has confirmed it’s “exploring” a new feature that would allow two accounts to co-author a single tweet.
• NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is finally home. Vande Hei, who lived in space for 355 consecutive days, setting a new record for the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut, arrived in Houston at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) on Thursday (March 31) following a touchdown in Kazakhstan the day before.

Can you believe we are at the end of March? It seems like we were kicking off the new year just a few days ago. Time is FLYING.

In This Issue: What feeds you? | TP-Link Gigabit SFP to 1000Base-T Fiber Converter | Importance of Fiber Optic Cleaning | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – What feeds you?

Something that has been on my mind a lot lately is “What am I surrounding myself with?” The environment and what we are “feeding” ourselves has a huge impact on our attitude, mood, mental health, and overall well-being. At least I know it does for me. Up until about 5 years ago, I lived in such a negative mindset for much of my life. Part of the reason for that is what I allowed to influence me and feed my way of thinking, whether that was what I was watching, listening to, reading, the people I was choosing to be around, or what I was allowing to captivate my thoughts.

We are bombarded with negativity, despair, discouragement everywhere we look nowadays. Social media and our phones make it so much easier to be exposed to these emotions and mindsets. TV and media do not help with this at all either. Avoiding this stuff and staying away from negative people won’t 100% solve the problem, the rest of it falls on us to take care of for ourselves. That’s why what and who we surround ourselves with is so important. I am sure you have heard the quote that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. That is definitely applicable for the people and the shows we watch or music we listen to as well – whatever we allow to “feed” us.

For me, I have decided I want to feed myself with things that are going to lift me up, encourage me, and challenge me to be better, more positive, and stronger. It’s the same way with the people that I hang out with. I hang out with a lot of people that are more healthy than I am, much better runners than I am, have more insight into the Word of God than I do, and are way smarter than I am. (Not sure, why they want to hang out with me…haha!) But they challenge and sharpen me to be a better person in the direction that I want to go.

It is not always easy for me to stay focused on my goals, encouraged, and positive every day, but here lately I have really learned that I have to dust myself off from the day before and start the new day with a renewed attitude and surround myself with the right stuff that day.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts on this with you this morning. It helps hold myself accountable when I say stuff like this out loud. haha!

Have an awesome Thursday!

Jason

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Product Spotlights & Updates

This USB-C hub has everything you need all in one device. Equipped with SD/Micro SD card reader, Gigabit Ethernet adapter, and USB 3.0 ports you can’t go wrong with this hub. Better yet, it’s backed by our lifetime warranty!

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Learning Center Article – Importance of Fiber Optic Cleaning

Installing fiber optic systems is not easy. It requires multiple levels of expertise in design and application, and its why fiber optics experts are always in high demand. While installations will vary heavily depending on the components and applications at play, there is one thing that is necessary for every installation, and it’s easy to overlook. Every system needs fiber optic cleaning to ensure that it will work properly.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Bruce Willis is taking a break from acting as he battles aphasia, a condition that affects the ability to communicate.
• President Biden is preparing to order the release of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve.
• Will Smith was asked to leave the 94th annual Academy Awards ceremony Sunday after slapping presenter Chris Rock, but refused. The organization behind the Oscars said its board of governors have initiated a disciplinary proceeding against Smith for violating the group’s standards of conduct.
• PlayStation has announced that PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now are coming together in an all-new PlayStation Plus subscription service that provides more choice to customers.

Happy National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day! Owning your own business is the goal that many people strive to attain. It takes countless hours of nurturing and hours of hard work. Today is the perfect day to support a small business! We’d love to hear more about your favorite small businesses to support.

In This Issue: We made it! | Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switch | What are SFP’s and How do they work? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – We made it!

Good Morning & Happy Tuesday! Last week I mentioned that I’d be participating in a 200-mile relay race over the weekend and I’m happy to report that I survived! We had 8 runners on our team split between two vans. The runners in my vehicle took the beginning legs of the race so we had to be up by 3 AM and at the start line by 4:15. We took turns running until around noon when we handed off to the runners in the other van. It was nice to get a bit of a break during the afternoon, although we were too hyped up to catch a nap! We resumed running again around 8 PM and ran until 1:30 AM.

At that point, we drove to the exchange zone where the other van would eventually pass the baton back to us. It happened to be a school parking lot which was very quiet so we rolled out sleeping bags and slept on the sidewalk in front of the school. It was extremely cold and windy, but we were so tired that we still caught about 3 hours of sleep. We picked back up running around 9 AM and ran until we finished the race at around 12:30 PM! It ended up taking us 30.5 hours which was way better than the 33 hrs we were expecting. I think the adrenaline had everyone running faster than they planned to! It was an awesome experience and I’m so glad I did it, but also so glad it’s over!

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Cisco 3850 Series of switches is an industry-leading, enterprise-class series of access switches that offers superior performance, scalability, and reliability. The Catalyst 3850 Series is the first to feature a built-in wireless controller with up to 40 Gbps of capacity on 48-port models. Further, it supports up to 100 access points and 2,000 wireless clients per switching entity (or stack). These switches are stackable for up to 9 members and come equipped with Cisco’s popular StackPower technology. StackPower is an innovative power-sharing and redundancy technology that allows members of the stack to share in one of two power pooling topologies.

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Learning Center Article – What are SFP’s and How do They Work?

High-end networking demands high-end equipment. You have a plethora of options, but eventually, you have to make decisions on which technology covers each of your applications. When considering all of those options, an understanding of SFP transceivers is pivotal. It’s a core technology that serves as a primary workhorse in many networks. This guide is going to explain all about SFP and its primary uses.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Sony is bundling its existing PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now services into one single subscription service called PlayStation Plus.
• Dairy Queen is expanding its burger offerings as the fast-food chain looks beyond Blizzards and other desserts. The new Stackburger line is Dairy Queen’s biggest menu expansion in two decades, with five burger varieties for U.S. customers.
• A former nurse in Tennessee has been convicted in the accidental death of a patient after she injected her with a paralyzing drug instead of a sedative. RaDonda Vaught, 38, was convicted by a jury Friday of criminal negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult after a three-day trial in Nashville closely watched by medical professionals.
• Apple is reportedly scaling back production of its new budget iPhones in China, less than three weeks after launching the product. This decrease is reportedly an early sign of the Ukraine war and inflation’s negative impact on electronics demand.

Happy Monday! The final four are set – is your team still in? Who are you rooting for to make it to the end?

In This Issue: Back at it! | HP BL460c Generation 8 | What is the difference between Cat6 and Cat6A? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Back at it!

Ever had one of those weekends where you had a checklist of things to do, but something happens to derail everything? Well, I had one of those weekends when a stomach virus attacked our entire family. I’d imagine it was like being on a cruise ship with rampant norovirus. Needless to say, it was not a fun weekend. Thankfully, everyone started feeling better Sunday night. The one good thing about being sick is that it makes you slow down and for us, we got some extra rest. I’m now ready to tackle the new week, well-rested, and feeling good.

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Blade servers are specifically designed to pack a lot of power in a small space. Blade servers can be used as a dedicated server or added to a virtual environment. The user is able to condense their server footprint and easily manage multiple servers from one point. Since they are smaller in nature, they have a better overall power consumption. The BL460c G8 is equipped with two small form factor (SFF) hot-plug drive bays, SD card slot, two (2) PCIe 3.0 mezzanine I/O expansion slots, and sixteen memory slots. The BL460c G8 has the ability to hold more ram and higher performance processors than the previous generations.

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Learning Center Article – What is the difference between Cat6 and Cat6A?

Designing a network from scratch is a major undertaking. Even for small networks, there’s a lot to consider. Once you have your layout and basic design, you still have to make a plethora of decisions. Many of those decisions will be tied to specific hardware choices, and they will be heavily dictated by which cabling you prefer for your applications.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Anyone 50 years and older could soon be eligible for a second booster dose of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize the additional booster shots without holding a meeting of its independent vaccine advisors.
• The Biden administration is set to propose a new minimum tax targeting the wealthiest American households in its fiscal year 2023 budget
• ExxonMobil has been working with Denver-based Crusoe Energy Systems to mine bitcoin in North Dakota for over a year. The pilot program, which is operating in the Bakken region, launched in late January 2021 and had begun expanding by July.
• Capital One has become the “official bank and credit card partner” of Major League Baseball.

Happy Friday! We’ve made it through another week and we’ve approached the end of another month. Can you believe it? As you reflect back on this month, what’s a goal you’ve accomplished that you are proud of?

In This Issue: Favorite Candy | Nylon Cable Ties | Basics of MPO/MTP Fiber Cables | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Favorite Candy

Happy Friday, folks! Q1 is coming to a close next week. It’s hard to believe we’re that far into 2022 already!

I’m going to start this post with a question: what is your favorite candy?

Why am I asking that? Our goal is to provide a friendly and memorable experience with every interaction you have with us. We are here because you give us the privilege of serving you!

Many years ago, we started including a small pack of M&M’s in every package. It was a way for us to say “Thank you.” Plus, the reality is most technology upgrades occur during off-hours, and this would be a snack to help make it through that time. We didn’t realize the impact sending this little pack of M&Ms had until we RAN out of M&Ms for a few weeks. We got messages like, “everything with my order was great, but where are the M&Ms?” We, of course, made up for the missing M&Ms and now do whatever is necessary to ensure we don’t run out!

Here at CK, we love M&M’s! What is your favorite candy? Maybe it’s a seasonal favorite such as Cadbury eggs?

Have a great weekend!

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Nylon cable ties help to hold medium size bundles of wires and cables neatly out of the way. They are an extremely versatile way to organize and bundle wires and cables. Additionally, they are easy to install and can be cut off for rework very easily. They lock tightly and won’t stretch or slide

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Learning Center Article – Basics of MPO/MTP Fiber Cables

Fiber optic cables drive modern communication. They are the only viable means for arranging the ultra-high-speed systems that run the backbones of digital communication. Long-range internet connectivity is dominated by fiber optic cables. Perhaps more importantly, the massive data processing that goes on at data centers does the majority of the workload for internet communications and digital information handling.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• President Joe Biden announced a new initiative meant to deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of European energy profits that Biden says are used to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine.
• Uber is becoming friends with a former foe. The company has reached an agreement to list all New York City taxis on its app. This could ease the ride-hailing giant’s driver shortage and temper high fares.
• Russia is considering accepting bitcoin as payment for its oil and gas exports.
• Apple is preparing a hardware subscription service for iPhones. The service would allow customers to buy an iPhone through monthly payments.