B&B's New Catalogue & Me on American Idol

Hi, my name is Mike Fahrion, and every few weeks I dish out practical tips for getting all those pieces of equipment in your care to talk to each other. We give out special freebies too — like specialized reports and tech guides, to make your job easier.

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Friend & Subscriber,

I'm not sure there's anything more mind-numbing than TV in late January. Post-New Year, Pre-Super Bowl, this is the season when they feed us programs that barely deserve mention. But there's one exception:

American Idol.

I've thought about being a contestant on American Idol. Seriously, I figure if I'm so raging popular with my e-connections subscribers and catalogue buyers, surely I can get some love on Network Television too. I can see it right now... Simon Cowell is speechless, Randy Jackson doesn't even dare call me a 'dawg', and Paula Abdul assures me I have a wonderful gift to share.

Only problem is my boss, Don, heard me singing in the lunchroom the other day. He swears if I even attempt such a thing, I'll find the contents of my desk dumped out in the parking lot when I come in the next day.

Well, I do kinda need this job...

Besides, reality is no match for a good fantasy, is it?

So when you get your brand new January 2006 catalogue and see my mug on page 52, I want you to *imagine* me singing. Singing a love song for Simon, Randy and Paula.

Keep an eye on your mailbox because the brand new B&B Electronics catalogues are coming. To be sure you get your copy click over to http://www.bb-europe.com/catalog_request.asp?s=ee060202. This 76 page issue is packed with lots of new stuff.

You'll find our popular Vlinx Ethernet serial servers in their industrial and commercial flavors. Our crew here has put in a major performance upgrade to the Vlinx line, they now meet or beat the fastest serial servers out there. That means they're virtually transparent to your Windows application. You're data will be zipping across the LAN and the software application won't have any idea that the serial device isn't wired directly to the PC's serial port.
Industrial Vlinx http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=120&s=ee060202
Commercial Vlinx http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?familyid=2&s=ee060202

Got a busy LAN? Today's Industrial Ethernet networks are carrying more data and running more different applications than ever. These managed industrial Ethernet switches from Sixnet keep all of your bits and bytes flowing only to the ports that need them, not clogging up your subnets with unnecessary traffic. Optimized for PROFInet, Modbus/TCP, Foundation Fieldbus HSE and EtherNet/IP these switches were designed specifically for critical control networks:
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=184&s=ee060202

We're not done yet! The deals on control cabinet equipment will turn more heads than Paula Abdul's latest attempt at fashion:

Mechanical and Solid State Relays are a mainstay of any control system. If you use mechanical or solid state relays in your panels, your purchasing agent will buy you lunch for pointing him to the large selection of Magnecraft relays at prices guaranteed to make him look good:
http://www.bb-europe.com/productsubcat.asp?MainCategoryId=61&s=ee060202

And if you use relays, you certainly use terminal blocks. In fact, if you use any DIN mount equipment at all, these DIN terminal blocks are the things that make your panels easy to build and maintain:
http://www.bb-europe.com/productcat.asp?topLevelid=23&s=ee060202

Ok - I'm winding down now. That's a lot of new stuff. And be sure to check out the picture of some of our trusty manufacturing folks (yes, we have manufacturing right here in the middle of the US) back on page 75. Oh, and and if you look r-e-a-l close at that picture, you might recognize an American Idol contestant or two.

(Maybe.)