CablesAndKits Blog

Today we wait and reflect. Happy Good Friday, CK Family. We are praying for your hearts as we reflect on all that He has done for us. We hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend!

In This Issue: Good Friday | Kendall Howard Universal Wire Minder | Managed vs Unmanaged Switches: Which do you need? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Good Friday

It’s Good Friday! What’s does today mean to you?

As a follower of Christ, today is the day that we remember the crucifixion of Christ, the day that He suffered on our behalf. We also know that Sunday came, and He Arose! But imagine for a moment that you were there. Sunday had not come. It would likely have been hard to hold onto the faith it would take to believe that he would rise. Yet, they still believed. John 3:16 comes to mind. It says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

We’re on the other side of history and know that Sunday came, and Jesus wasn’t in the tomb! So while today is a day of remembrance for the Man who gave his life for you and me, we know that Sunday is coming!

Please take 3 minutes to listen to this video; It’s Friday…But Sunday’s a coming!

Have a great Easter!

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Kendall Howard rack-mounted Universal Wire Minder is the perfect add-on to any racking system. This adaptive design allows it to be mounted in eight different positions based on what best fits your racking needs. This Wire Minder has a generous 1.5″ by 3″ clearance to manage even the largest cables and is made from .090 steel to assure strength and durability.

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Learning Center Article – Managed vs Unmanaged Switches: Which do you need?

Switches are one of the core pieces of almost any major network. They manage traffic routing for Ethernet-connected devices. As such, they provide stable, fast means of communication for any device across the network.

If you run a business network, you’ll need some kind of switch, and when you look into it, you’ll find that there are two competing types of switches: managed and unmanaged.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has determined the size of the largest icy comet nucleus ever seen by astronomers. The estimated diameter is approximately 80 miles across, making it larger than the state of Rhode Island.
• This weekend will see the rising of the “Pink Moon,” always one of the year’s most popular astronomical spectacles. It will look its best as it appears low on the eastern horizon on Saturday, April 16, 2022.
• To help mitigate the spread of bird flu, the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota is asking people to take down bird feeders and stop using birdbaths this spring.
• Russia appears to be retaliating for the sinking of its flagship missile cruiser Moskva, which Ukrainian forces say they hit with missiles, as large explosions are heard in Kyiv.

Talk about a week for national holidays! Today is National Gardening Day – the perfect day to grab your shovel, favorite plants/seeds, and kick-off a year of homegrown bounty!

In This Issue: Favorite Easter Candy | Yealink UVC20 Full HD Webcam | Cat7 Ethernet: Beginning & End | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Favorite Easter Candy

Happy Thursday!

As Ashley mentioned yesterday, this week is very special as we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus and the meaning behind his sacrifice. As always, there is a ton of discussion about Easter-related stuff on the news, on social media, and on TV. In a little bit different spin on a topic for this time of year, I read an article on top Easter candy. It seems Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs took the top spot again this year followed closely by Cadbury Eggs and then chocolate bunnies. My personal favorites are Sweetart Jellybeans and Nerd Jellybeans. I like chocolate but I always tend to lean towards the tart candy. And I can proudly say I have NEVER had a Peep in my life (as far as I can remember) and I intend to keep it that way!

If you have followed my posts long enough you know I try to be healthy and mindful of what I eat. I know jellybeans aren’t too bad for you. I came across this list of what 100 calories of different top Easter candies look like:

So…besides the calorie numbers, what’s your favorite Easter candy to snack on this time of year?

Have an amazing rest of the week and Easter weekend!

Jason

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Yealink UVC20 is a full HD webcam featuring both 1080P HD video and ultra HD audio. Built with a 5-megapixel full HD glass lens, this camera delivers exceptional quality video and gives users a premium desktop video experience. In addition, it features an omnidirectional microphone, auto exposure, autofocus, and a rotatable lens. This camera is perfect for those who work remotely, as well as for distance education, trainings, live streams, telemedicine, and more!

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Learning Center Article – Cat7 Ethernet: Beginning & End

Ethernet has been a staple in networking for decades. When copper cables can provide enough throughput, they tend to be much cheaper and easier to use than other connection types. Ethernet is the king of simplicity, and that’s a major part of why it is so popular.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• President Biden announced Wednesday that his administration would authorize $800 million in additional security assistance to Ukraine, including artillery, helicopters and armored personnel carriers.
• Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter in a deal worth more than $43 billion and take the social media company private.
• Amazon is rebranding its free-to-stream, ad-supported service from IMDb TV to Amazon Freevee.
• The wait time for a new Lamborghini SUV or supercar is now over 12 months. Prepandemic, the typical wait time was around 6 months.

Happy Wednesday and Happy National Scrabble Day! Are you a Scrabble fan? If you play Scrabble, you know it’s the most satisfying feeling to get a “bingo” in a game. What’s your best “bingo” word?!

In This Issue: Preparing Your Heart | Dell PowerEdge T620 | Throughput vs DRAM and Flash Specs | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Preparing Your Heart

Good morning!

For the past two weeks, I’ve spent some time with my grandparents in the Florida Keys! If you’ve never been, highly recommend!

Over the past two weeks, I’ve watched the sunset daily, in awe of the beautiful earth we live on. I’ve spent some time walking along the shoreline, collecting shells and taking in every ounce of sea life possible. And lastly, I’ve spent a pretty significant amount of time in prayer thinking and reflecting on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

At the beginning of the week, I was challenged to treat this week different than any other week. To find a way, each day, that is different than my normal routine – to truly spend time in prayer and reflection. We’re halfway through the week, but I challenge you to do the same. Whether that’s more intentional prayer time, journaling, a daily family devotional, etc. I hope that you will find a way to be more intentional this week and prepare your heart to embrace the joy He has provided to us through his sacrifice.

Ashley

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Gain next-generation speed and versatility with the Dell™ PowerEdge™ T620 tower, fully equipped with high performance and availability with built-in room for growth. With its Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 processors, outstanding virtualization and database performance are assured. Finish your most demanding applications efficiently fast. The T620 has the capability of handling large workloads and key applications.

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Learning Center Article – Throughput vs DRAM and Flash Specs

When it comes to designing and managing networks, there is an endless challenge of trying to improve performance. Inevitably, that includes upgrading and replacing hardware. When you research hardware for upgrades and replacements, you’ll see a lot of different tech specs listed in the descriptions.

Two common terms that come up are throughput and bandwidth. You’ll see bandwidth more in advertising spaces, and you’ll see throughput more when you look up real-world tests of the hardware. Why is throughput so important? Why don’t you see more about flash specs?

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• The U.S. State Department has ordered all non-emergency government staff and their family members in Shanghai to leave as Covid surges.
• Lululemon will debut a trade-in and resale option for its gently used leggings, tops and jackets later this month.
• Chrome has 3.2 billion users worldwide and now every single one of them needs to act because Google has confirmed multiple new hacks of its browser.
• A SpaceX Crew Dragon safely delivered four private astronauts—not affiliated with any space agency—to the International Space Station this past Saturday.

Happy Tuesday! It’s national grilled cheese day and why wouldn’t we talk about bread grilled to perfection, and warm, gooey, melted cheese?! Any grilled cheese fans out there?

In This Issue: Indoor Camping | HP DL560 Generation 9 | Wifi 6 vs WiFi 6E | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Indoor Camping

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday! I don’t how the weather was over the weekend where you are, but around here it was downright COLD! Lows were in the 30s and highs were only in the 50s, but the wind was so strong it felt much colder. Unlike Cris, I wasn’t brave enough to go camping outdoors over the weekend, but I did have my niece and nephew over for a little “indoor camping”. They spent the night on Friday and we set up air mattresses in the family room and enjoyed a movie night with popcorn and candy! We watched Dennis the Menace (yep, the one from 1993) and they absolutely loved it. It’s a classic for sure! On Saturday we decided to try our hand at bowling which was a lot of fun! They did great!

While I was bummed that we didn’t get to spend much time outside, I’m hoping that this was our last blast of cold for the season! We are all ready for some fresh air and sunshine!

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

HP DL560 Generation 9 servers come with everything you need for increased performance, scalability, and reliability in your data-intensive network! These 2U rackmount servers come with four Intel® Xeon® E5-4600 v3 and v4 processors and also feature 48 DIMMS of DDR4 RAM. These servers give you the processing power and memory you need to optimize your network.

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Learning Center Article – Wifi 6 vs WiFi 6E

Wi-Fi is ever-present in the modern world. You need it, and you can’t get away from it, and since everyone uses it, Wi-Fi networks get very crowded. Wi-Fi 6 was designed to help alleviate this crowding, and it works. Now, Wi-Fi 6E is available, and it offers dramatic improvements in this regard.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• The U.S. Department of Education is moving to pull millions of federal student loan borrowers out of default status and mark their accounts as current.
• Panera Bread is piloting Miso Robotics’ new automated coffee brewing system as it doubles down on its coffee and tea subscription program.
• Etsy sellers are acting on their promise to go on strike. Some crafters are protesting the marketplace’s latest fee increase by putting their shops into “vacation mode” for a week ending April 18th.
• Beyond Meat is expanding distribution of its meatless chicken tenders to 8,000 new grocery, pharmacy and big-box retail locations.

Happy Monday and Happy Pet Day! Today is the perfect day to show your pets more love and maybe even give them a few extra treats. Send in all the pet photos today – we can’t wait to see them!

In This Issue: Family Camping Trips! | Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series | Understanding the Differences Between MPO and MTP Fiber | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Family Camping Trips!

Happy Holy Week!

I’m happy to report we survived our camping trip, and everyone had a great time! The first day was a bit dodgy as there were some massive storms in our area, but we were fortunate enough to be able to set up camp before the storms hit. At our campsite, it didn’t rain until midnight, so we were able to enjoy our first day without any issues. The storms that night were both beautiful and terrifying, but my daughters slept through them, and for the most part, I enjoyed the light show that was happening outside. The tent held up well and didn’t experience any leaks.

The only thing we did not anticipate was how cold it would get at night. We knew it would be cold, but for whatever reason didn’t realize how cold it would actually be around 2 or 3 in the morning. Luckily I packed quite a few large hot hands (chemical hand warmers) and threw a bunch of those under our blankets and that seemed to have helped a ton. Next time we’ll bring more blankets than we think we need!

It was nice to disconnect for a few days and spend time with the family. Happy to report that this won’t be our last family camping trip. We’re already talking about possibly having another adventure in the summer… but I’m not looking forward to the heat! Hope you all have a great week and enjoy the spring… I encourage you to try camping with your family, even if it’s a short trip!

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Inline Power 10/100BaseT Ethernet switching module enables the Catalyst 6500/6000 family to be the first platform in the industry that can support new Fast Ethernet features necessary for campus network convergence. You can use this module to supply inline power for Cisco IP Phones and Cisco Wireless Access Points supplied with Fast Ethernet.

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Learning Center Article – Understanding the Differences Between MPO and MTP Fiber

When designing high-bandwidth fiber communication systems, you have to pick from a wide range of tools and resources. Optimizing the system is the key to providing the needed performance within budget constraints.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• A deadly and highly infectious avian flu is forcing U.S. farmers to kill millions of egg-laying hens, reducing the country’s egg supply and driving up prices.
• The Spanish Civil Guard says it is investigating a person who owned a private taxidermy collection with more than 1,000 animals, including some that are protected or extinct species.
• Target has a new landing page on resale site, ThredUp, which features items from its private labels and limited-time designer collections along with select items from luxury brands.
• Apple will offer free broadcasts of two exclusive MLB games per week on Apple TV+ starting Friday.

Happy Friday! We hope you enjoyed Opening Day! The weekend is here – do you have plans? Looks like a cold front is moving through the southeast, so hopefully, it’s still pretty enough to enjoy some time outside!

In This Issue: Hiding Places | LINIER Economy 2U Rack Shelf | Why would you use shielded Ethernet Cables? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Hiding Places

Happy Friday, folks! Have you ever gotten a big bag of your favorite candy? Or maybe some lovely chocolates? And, did the thought run through your mind that perhaps you want to keep this all for yourself, so you decided to hide it from everyone else in the house?

🙋‍♂️ I’ll be the first to raise my hand! I tend to put stuff in places that aren’t nearly as stealthy as I would like. My wife, on the other hand, is great at hiding candy from all of us! I recently asked where she had hidden something. Her reply surprised me! She had hidden it inside the luggage in the closet in MY office. I thought that was an ingenious place to put it. No one touches the luggage until we’re close to a trip, so there’s never a reason to look there. The real question is, how long before our kids find this new hiding place?

So what creative ways have you found to hide candy from your kids?

Have a great weekend!

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The LINIER Economy Rack Mount Shelves are a great way to store your non-rack mountable components. Our shelves are suitable for monitors, modems, DSL routers, backup units, and virtually anything you can think of. This rack is one of our value-line shelves and was designed to accommodate any standard 19″ rack. Made in the USA.

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Learning Center Article – Why would you use shielded Ethernet Cables?

Currently, the use of high bandwidth applications has been on the rise, and network systems have started venturing into factory environments which have called for the use of shielded cables. In this new installation sector, the cable is used in areas with high electromagnetic interference (EMI). Even with improved ability to reject noise and handle gigabit Ethernet, these cables will not function properly in areas where there is high EMI if not properly shielded.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Opening Day of the 2022 MLB season is in the rearview mirror, but plenty of teams are still set to make their debut on the diamond. Read more about it here.
• Tiger Woods teed off in the Masters for the first time since his accident in February 2021.
• Jeep has redesigned an all-electric concept version of its flagship Wrangler. This new version is set to go from 0-60 mph is just 2 seconds.
• HBO Max is following through on promises to overhaul its underwhelming smart TV apps. The new version should reach your TV starting next week.