CablesAndKits Blog

Happy Thursday! Today is the perfect day to take a break from sweeping, dusting, or doing any dishes. It’s National No Housework Day! Dirty windows? They will wait one more day. The vacuum can remain banished to the closet. And mopping? Well, tomorrow it’s a date.

In This Issue: Eating Habits | Display Port to HDMI Converter | Top 5 Reasons Why Your Network Needs A Firewall | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Eating Habits

Happy Thursday!

I hope all of you are having a fantastic week and being productive (unless your kids are on Spring Break and you are on vacation, then I hope you are finding time to relax…if that is possible. Haha!) It has been a pretty busy week here between the new website, starting a new month, and just balancing life. Of course, that is probably every day, every week.

Working out has always been my “go-to” stress-reliever and way to relax. It has been a great week with it. One thing I am working on starting this month is my eating habits. I can work out like crazy and do great but when it comes to eating healthy or even just eating right…I am not too disciplined with that. I don’t want to do something that is unattainable or something that I am going to get frustrated with and sabotage myself quickly. I am easing in by trying to eat a more balanced lunch and dinner, along with cutting out a good bit of my sweets. I found these awesome smaller dinners by Healthy Choice called Power Bowls. They have been amazing! Lots of flavor and a huge variety of types. They also are balanced with carbs and have a good bit of protein. I have been very surprised by them. I am hoping these help and I can stick with them. So, along with these, I am trying to eat more salads and veggies, which I really like anyway. I also came across an awesome recipe for no-bake energy bites. These have helped when I wanted something sweet but didn’t want to just sit down and eat a whole thing of chocolate chip cookies. I am sure eating right will help with working out and running too.

As with any habit change, I know it takes the right mindset and some determination. Knowing the long-term benefits of eating better and that this will help me achieve my goals has helped me stay in the right frame of mind.

If you have any good recipes or ideas for eating better and more healthy, please send them my way!

Have a great Thursday and rest of the week!

Jason

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Product Spotlights & Updates

This display port to HDMI converter will take a dual-mode Display Port signal and convert that signal to standard HDMI v1.3. This converter handles all the switching necessary to accept AC coupled signals and is handled automatically. The lead on this adapter is 6″ making it ideal for compact, tight instillations.

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Learning Center Article – Top 5 Reasons Why Your Network Needs A Firewall

It takes a lot to truly secure a business network. If your business is notably successful, then this is doubly true. Nefarious people will want to infiltrate your tech in order to steal money or just wreak havoc. Stopping them isn’t easy, but the first step is to set up a firewall. In fact, there are five specific ways a firewall can help your business.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• A subsidiary of one of the largest U.S. wind energy companies has been sentenced to probation and ordered to pay over $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 eagles were killed at its wind farms in eight states.
• Google Maps is getting an update that includes toll pricing and other route information! Read more here.
• The U.S. Navy plans to decommission nine ships in the Freedom class of littoral combat ships — warships that cost about $4.5 billion to build.
• Perched approximately 200 meters (650 feet) above Beverly Hills, California, is a European-flavored residence that recently hit the market for $87 million. Past its gates, a 700-foot private drive hugs the mountainside as it leads up a steep incline to reveal a dramatic, 7.8-acre estate.

Happy Wednesday and Happy National Walking Day! Today is the perfect day to head outside and get your legs and heart pumping. Do you have a favorite trail or path you like to walk on?

In This Issue: Puppy Training | Cisco 2960-X Series | Do I need the latest server? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Puppy Training

Good morning! Can you believe it’s already April?! Where has the time gone?! I ended March and kicked off the beginning of April with a new puppy. Meet Remi! Our 4 lb 2 oz ball of fluff.

We are in full swing training mode with him. Potty training has been a tough cookie to navigate but he’s learning. He loves toys, playing with our cat, and because we’ve done some recent traveling, the ocean! He went on his first kayaking adventure, and he loved it!

Anyways, I’m on the hunt for any and all training tips! How did you train your pup? I’d love to hear your secrets!

Ashley

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Product Spotlights & Updates

If your business is looking for enterprise-level functionality without the enterprise-level budget, a refurbished Cisco Catalyst 2960-X-48FPD-L switch may be the right choice for you. With 740W of available PoE+ power and 48 available ports, this switch offers stackable Gigabit Ethernet in a fixed configuration. Switches in the 2960-X family, like the refurbished WS-C2960X-48FPD-L, are made to operate efficiently and deploy with ease.

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Learning Center Article – Do I need the latest server?

Data centers aren’t cheap. Just the cost of power requirements for keeping your equipment running can be staggering. Adding the cost of new servers can often feel like too much. If you have high demands and a tight budget, you need a way to get more power and performance for every dollar spent. For most applications, the easiest way to do this is to look at refurbished servers and parts.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Uber is driving ahead with its plan to become a travel “superapp”. The San Francisco-headquartered firm announced Wednesday that it is adding trains, buses, planes, and car rentals to its U.K. app this year.
• The UK has detected a new Covid variant.
• This daughter and father duo founded a company to bury nuclear waste by drilling a deep borehole. Read more here.
• Two of naturalist Charles Darwin’s notebooks that were reported stolen from Cambridge University’s library have been returned, two decades after they disappeared. The university said Tuesday that the manuscripts were left in the library inside a pink gift bag, along with a note wishing the librarian a Happy Easter.

March Madness came to a quick end yesterday with Kansas taking the overall win! This year was quite the year of upsets! How did your bracket hold up?

In This Issue: Table for 4 | Cisco 8800/8900/9900 IP Phone Power Supply | Choosing the Right Switch for your Crypto Mining Network | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Table for 4

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is off to a great start this week! I had a fairly relaxed weekend which was a nice change. I got to spend Saturday with my nieces and nephew. I typically have at least one of the kids over each weekend and sometimes I even offer to watch 2 kids at once, but this weekend I was feeling quite brave and invited all 3 over.

I was a little nervous about it, but everyone behaved super well and we had a great time! We ventured out to Target for a little shopping and even were so bold as to go out to dinner just the 4 of us! I tried to convince the kids that we should invite their parents to dinner, but they vetoed that idea so I braved it alone. Aside from spilling a cup of water all over the floor, we had no issues at all! I really enjoyed getting to spend time with all of them and I’m pretty sure my brother and sister-in-law enjoyed getting a little bit of time to relax! Lucky for them, the kids were great and I’ll definitely make a habit of inviting all of them over!

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

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.

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Learning Center Article – Choosing the Right Switch for your Crypto Mining Network

Crypto mining is a popular way to try to make money. In its simplest form, miners use simple setups that make a few extra bucks here and there. In extreme cases, miners dedicate entire warehouses of hardware to mining, and when they are efficient enough, they can make big money.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• A meeting of college basketball powers in Monday night’s national title game delivered a game for the ages as Kansas rallied from a 16-point deficit to beat North Carolina 72-69 and secure the program’s fourth national championship.
• Spanish officials have seized a Russian-owned luxury yacht in Mallorca at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. It was the first coordinated seizure under the department’s Task Force KleptoCapture.
• Goldfish aired their iconic jingle in three 15-second spots during the 2022 Grammy Awards. In the commercial, the company encourages viewers to write new lyrics to their iconic jingle.
• Amazon signed a massive rocket deal with 3 firms for its Project Kuiper internet satellite project.

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.