CK Daily Updates

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

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

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The CK Daily – The Value of Reviews

Happy Wednesday!

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

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

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

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

Ashley

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Product Spotlights & Updates

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

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Learning Center Article – Polarity for MPO Cables

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

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

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

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

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

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The CK Daily – Staying Connected & Intentional

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

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

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

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

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

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

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

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Learning Center Article – What Are Copper Transceivers?

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

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

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

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

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

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The CK Daily – Free Shipping 📦

Happy Monday!

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

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

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

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

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

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Learning Center Article – All About Media Converters

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

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

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

Happy Friday! The weekend is here – do you have plans? We hope it’s a great one! 😎

In This Issue: Homemade Biscuits 🧑‍🍳 | Cisco 3560X/3750X 715WAC Power Supply | The Right Ethernet for the Right Network | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Homemade Biscuits 🧑‍🍳

Happy Friday, folks! I recently started making homemade biscuits for my family each Saturday morning. This brings my family together for breakfast each Saturday morning before we embark on our weekend plans. After only a few weeks, my kids are looking forward to this time each weekend!

I didn’t expect how much fun I would have exploring different recipes. I initially reached out to some family members to get a recipe, and to my surprise, all recipes were different. So, I turned to YouTube for more recipes, and I found that there are plenty of ways to make biscuits! And everybody claims their way is the only way. 😂

Since I had never made biscuits, I was willing to try different recipes to see which turned out the best. It became an experiment to find out my family’s favorite recipe. As each week passes, the biscuits are getting better and better! I’ve found the following five ingredients create the biscuits we enjoy the most: all-purpose flour, sea salt, baking powder, butter, and buttermilk.

Do you have a favorite biscuit recipe? I’d love to try out more recipes!

Have a great weekend!

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Cisco 3560X/3750X 715 WAC Power Supply is an enterprise-class of standalone and stackable switch and comes with an 8-foot black cord for operability. It offers high levels of energy efficiency, ease of operation, security, scalability, and availability.

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Learning Center Article – The Right Ethernet for the Right Network

An efficient Ethernet cable management plan, especially in high-density and challenging network environments, increases the versatility of network maintenance and operation. It also contributes to the system’s uptime and lowers operation cost, which makes your life a whole lot easier!

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Lululemon will debut its first men’s footwear line and will soon offer a new casual and performance sneaker designed specifically for men.
• Universal Music Group and TikTok began Thursday the process of removing the label’s song library from the social media platform after the two entities failed to come to an agreement over what UMG alleges is unfair pay for its artists’ work.
• Meta will pay a 50-cent dividend, its first ever, and has authorized a $50 billion share buyback.
• Japan’s historic SLIM moon lander has powered down ahead of a likely mission-ending cold lunar nighttime — but not before grabbing some final images and loads of science data. Read more here.

Happy Thursday! Embrace the joy of today and savor the sweet moments because it’s not just any Thursday—it’s National Dark Chocolate Day! 🍫 Indulge your taste buds in the rich, velvety goodness of dark chocolate.

In This Issue: Figuring out the Figure Outables | Cat6 RJ45 110 Type Keystone Jack | Understanding Ethernet Cable Gauge (AWG) | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Figuring out the Figure Outables

Howdy folks, Craig here. I’ve previously written about my time away from CK and what brought me back into the day-to-day. At this point in the story (Sept 2023), we’d been losing money for months due to revenue being significantly down (up to 50%) and we had no idea why. The revenue left in the middle of the night and didn’t even leave a note!

I called a meeting with 4 people on the revenue side of the business on Thursday, Sept 28th 2023. Product, Marketing, and E-comm people. At that meeting, I said I was stepping back in so we could all put our heads together to:

1. Figure out what the heck happened
2. Fix it
3. Prevent it from happening again

Pretty simple right? Lol.

But the truth is, it kinda is that simple.

I didn’t say it was EASY, I said it was SIMPLE.

The truth is, business is like a factory or a machine that makes a product. Raw materials go in, things happen, and a finished product comes out. A business is a series of processes that, when executed well, will turn efforts into profits that keep the whole thing going, and hopefully growing, to the benefit of it’s owners, staff, customers, and community.

Let’s get into “how the sausage is made” in our business (or any e-commerce business for that matter).

In a business like ours, the process is broken down into 4 CRITICAL components:

• Engage ‘Em – People need to be aware of your existence. Adwords, Google SEO, Social Media, and other advertising. Word of Mouth / Referrals are also very important. We’ll never get a site visitor if they don’t even know we exist.
• Get ‘Em – When a potential customer lands on our site, they need to quickly understand what we do and why it should matter to them. They should quickly find the product or service that solves a problem, and it should be easy and compelling for them to click the add to cart / checkout button. If we cannot compel site visitors to buy, we are a museum not a business.
• Keep ‘Em – Once a customer chooses to do business with us they should have been so “wowed” by our delivery, product, customer service, and of course the little package of M&M’s in the box, that they couldn’t imagine going anywhere else the next time they have a need for a product or service we offer. This is what GROWS a business.
• Grow ‘Em – Once we have a loyal customer we should be looking for ways to expand the amount of business we do with that customer. What products do we offer that they are not aware of? What products do they buy elsewhere that we do not sell, that perhaps we should? Does the customer need a sales rep to help navigate the complexities of their projects and purchasing processes? By engaging with the customer at a higher level of complexity we are solving much bigger and more important problems. This is where customers tend to think of us as a “partner”.

As we began to dig in and take an honest look at the business we started to realize where we were weak, mediocre, pretty good, and strong.

Then we got to work.

More to come!

Craig

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The CablesAndKits Cat6 110 Type Keystone jack supports both T568A and T568B wiring with a 4 x 4 termination layout. To terminate use a 110-punch-down tool. This keystone jack is 8P8C and is completely backward compatible with lower-rated cables including Cat5e.

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Learning Center Article – Understanding Ethernet Cable Gauge (AWG)

When you have to put a network together, you’re going to compare a lot of different components to try to squeak out better performance without spending obscene amounts of money. Because of that, you’re likely to consider using Ethernet for many (if not all) parts of your network.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. is to undergo a name change. The Orlando-based theme park chain company announced it will be known as United Parks & Resorts Inc., effective Feb. 12.
• Krispy Kreme launched its all-new Dough-Notes Collection. The four heart-shaped doughnuts are designed to be decorated with personalized messages
• Mastercard is launching a new generative artificial intelligence model to allow banks to better assess suspicious transactions on its network.
• Walmart is planning to open more than 150 of its large-format stores over the next five years. Some of the locations will be converted, but the majority will be new.

Happy Wednesday! We’ve hit the middle of the week. Hang in there, the weekend is right around the corner!

In This Issue: Personality Tests | RJ45 Crimp Tool | Bidirectional or BiDi Transceivers Explained | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Personality Tests

Happy Wednesday!

I hope everyone is having a great week. Ever had conversations that sparked a pretty in-depth internal reflection? Over the past week, it seems lots of conversations have come up in my personal and professional life that have sent me down quite the trail of reflecting on who I am personally, who I am professionally, how I work, how I respond, how I react, etc.

I don’t know about you, but I used to be obsessed with taking all the personality tests that I could find. And there are a TON! At one point in my life, I felt like I was so into them that I was defining myself and changing who I was by what they said. There may have been some things that were like me already, but if there were other things – it kind of felt like I’d adapt to be right on par with them. Because of that, I stopped taking personality tests.

Anywho, the reflection moments I’ve been having recently have made me rethink about all those personality tests. They used to really control me or guide who I was – kinda nuts to think about that. But I’ve gone through quite a few significant life changes and events over the past year. Because of these things, there are moments when I realize that I’ve changed/grown. How I would have responded before, in certain situations, is not how I find myself responding or reacting now.

Do you enjoy personality tests? Which are your favorites? Have you been spending time reflecting this year on yourself personally and professionally? If you have, I hope that your reflections have been fruitful.

Have a good rest of the week!

Ashley

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Product Spotlights & Updates

This RJ45 crimp tool was designed with a built-in stripping blade to cut or strip the wire. This product will work with Cat5, Cat6, and Cat6A RJ45 ends.

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Learning Center Article – Bidirectional or BiDi Transceivers Explained

Fiber optics are great for achieving extremely fast networks. They’re also essential for very long networking connections that extend multiple kilometers in total distance. If the latter is important for your operation, then SFP is likely the fiber optic connection that you will need.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• SpaceX signed a deal with Starlab, the private space station joint venture of Voyager and Airbus, to launch on the company’s Starship rocket. The station is one of several currently in development by U.S. companies, as NASA prepares to retire the International Space Station in 2030.
• Walmart announced a three-for-one stock split. The company said the additional shares will be payable after the market closes Feb. 23 to shareholders of record as of the previous day.
• Starbucks has two new seasonal menu items for you to love this Valentine’s season, launching Tuesday, January 30, and available while supplies last. Read more here.
• The first fully Pixar-themed hotel in the United States officially opened at Disneyland resort on Tuesday. The 15-story hotel overlooking Disney California Adventure Park, which was previously Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel, was recently reimagined into the Pixar-themed hotel.