Marine Electronics

Congress and the president have designated ten days as federal holidays. Being 'federal', these holidays theoretically only pertain to federal employees and residents of the District of Columbia, although they are so widely observed that they can be thought of as national holidays.

Officially, it is up to each individual state to designate public holidays. If the holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the Friday before or the Monday after is given in lieu to make a long weekend.

New Year's Day (January 1) - celebrating the New Year dates back to pre-Christian times, when rites were performed to try to ensure the return of Spring.

Martin Luther King Jnr. Day (third Monday in January) - before he was shot dead in 1968, Martin Luther King Jnr. was the foremost civil rights leader of the 1950's and 1960's. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Congress set this day aside to celebrate his life and achievements in 1983.

Washington's Birthday (third Monday in February) - originally it was commemorated on Washington's actual birthday, the 22nd of February, but it was moved in 1971 to make a long weekend. It is sometimes known as Presidents' Day, because it is near Lincoln's birthday on the 12th February.

Memorial Day (last Monday in May) - also known as Decoration Day, it honours soldiers fallen in battle.It originates from the Civil War and is customarily marked by parades and services.

Independence Day (4th July) - this, the most important US holiday, marks the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. It was first commemorated in 1777 and is marked by fireworks, parades and speeches.

Labor Day (first Monday in September) - this, the proposal of Peter J. McGuire, the president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, was adopted in 1894 to celebrate American workers.

Columbus Day (second Monday in October) - Christopher Columbus and his crew landed in the Bahamas on Oct 12th 1492. It was first commemorated in 1792, although it was not officially recognized until 1909. It is a cause of special pride to Italian-Americans, who claim the Genoan voyager as their own.

Veterans Day (Nov 11th) - or Armistice Day marks the end of the First World War on Nov 11th 1918. It was made a legal holiday in 1938, but its name was changed in 1954 to honour all American veteran soldiers.

Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November) - it was first celebrated in Plymouth County, Massachusetts in 1621, the year in which the Pilgrims landed in the New World to give thanks for the new harvest and the new land they had colonized. President Lincoln made it a holiday in 1863.

Christmas Day (December 25th) - Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Franklin Covey planner refillss If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

I was looking through a history book and it was going on about memorable events of ten years ago, but I had forgotten most of them. I have picked out some of the events of exactly ten years ago this month - January, in a word. So here are a few things that you may or probably will not remember from January 2000.

1 - on his first day as interim president, Vladimir Putin left to visit Russian troops in Chechnya.

4 - President Clinton recommends Alan Greenspan to a fourth four year term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

5 - President Clinton rules that Elian Gonzalez, a six year old Cuban boy who survived the capsizing of a refugee boat, should be returned to his father in Cuba.

6 - much of Miami is shut down by hundreds of Cuban-Americans protesting the Gonzalez decision. - the S.E.C reports that most partners of Price, Waterhouse, Coopers, the world's largest accounting firm, contravened regulations requiring that they may not hold shares in firms that they audit. Five partners were fired.

7 - Vice Pres. Al Gore back-tracks on his promise to ensure that all new appointees to the Joint Chiefs of Staff were sympathetic to permitting gays to serve openly in the military.

8 - AOL announces a merger with Time Warner for $165 billion: the world's biggest ever.

11 - the British government rules that General Pinochet is medically unfit to stand trial for suspected crimes against humanity in Chile during his presidency.

13 - executives at the nation's leading drugs companies say they want to cooperate with Clinton to institute Medicare coverage for prescription drugs this year.

15 - Arkan, the notorious Serbian paramilitary leader was shot dead in a hotel lobby in Belgrade.

18 - Helmut Kohl resigns as honorary Christian Democratic Party chairman over allegations of corruption from within the party.

24 - the Supreme Court rules that laws limiting political donations to $1,000 in Missouri are constitutional.

25 - the Congressional Budget Office reports that the flood of tax revenues resulting from the exceptionally strong economy will last for ten years.

26 - 'The New York Times' reports that U.S investigators have discovered links between a group of Algerians charged with plotting a terrorist strike in the U.S. and Osama Bin Laden, the exiled Saudi accused of bombing two American embassies.

31 - Republican Gov. George Ryan of Illinois halts all executions in the state citing a disgraceful record of convicting innocent people and putting them on death row. - top officials n the C.I.A. are accused of blocking an internal investigation into indications that the agency's past director, John M. Deutsch, mishandled secret information.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with custom wall calendars If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please visit our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

Biometrics is, generally, the analysis of what can be measured of your biological features. When it comes to computer security, biometrics has to do with certification techniques that utilize differentiating physical features that can be automatically affirmed.

Biometrics has fast emerged as a new technique for identification and has already found practical applications in most hi-tech security fields. It is this particular aspect of the technique that we have selected to center on. We will try to identify how well biometrics can be applied to security and certification in various places.

A very large thought among the multitudes is that, Biometrics is available only for the rich and individuals with loads of cash. But that is a long way from reality. Biometrics other than being very efficient, is also very cost-efficient.

Employing biometrics for discovering and certifying many individuals, offers some unequaled advantages. Exclusively, biometric identification provides an identification on an intrinsic part of a persons body. Soon to be relics, similar to smart cards, iron based magnetic cards, physical keys, and so on, can be stolen or left at home. Keywords might be forgotten or observed.

Finger print electronic scanners are the most widely utilized biometric devices. These devices moved into the mainstream a couple of years ago, when manufacturers began implanting the technology in laptops and regular computer keyboards, as well as offering stand-alone scanners for a wide range of security applications.

Fingerprints stay unaltered throughout an individuals life. In over 140 years of print comparison from all over the world, no two individuals prints have ever been noticed to be the same, not even the fingerprints of identical twins. Really good fingerprint scanners have been put in PDAs like the iPaq Pocket PC, so the reader technology is even easy. They may not function properly in industrial applications since it calls for clean hands to perform properly.

There is also voice biometrics. Similar face recognition, voice biometrics creates a way to verify an individuals identity without the subject's knowledge. It is much simpler to fool (by recording peoples voices), it's not possible to take advantage of an analyst by imitating another person's voice.

In summary, biometrics has become available to every individual at all different price ranges.

Find out more about uk biometric at his website on: information management security.

Spoken by over 60 million people, Italian is a romance language that hosts a large number of cultural works known worldwide. Considered to be the closest living language to Latin, Italian's grammar is considerably simpler than its ancestor's.

Reasons for learning Italian range from preparing for a trip to Italy to retiring on the Italian coast. Many others learn Italian because their ancestors came from Italy or because they want an advantage in applying for jobs. No matter what your reason may be for learning Italian, learning a new language is a very rewarding process.

Knowing another Romance language already can greatly speed up your Italian studies. The grammar between Italian and other romance languages like Spanish and French is very similar and almost exactly the same in many cases. If you studied a romance language even in high school, you will find many similarities to help you.

English speakers worldwide think of Italian as a very beautiful language. Unlike English, Italian puts a lot of emphasis on vowel sounds and many Italian words have vowel sounds at the end.

Tricky Italian points for English speakers include determining gender for nouns since words are either of the masculine gender or of the feminine gender. Additionally, verbs are conjugated with very different forms depending on the subject of the sentence.

Similarities, however, include word order. English and Italian have very similar word orders and both are considered to be subject-verb-object languages. You will find that it is very easy to start making Italian sentences even as a beginner.

Italian is a popular language to study so there is no shortage of materials to use for learning Italian. You can choose from computer software programs to traditional style classroom classes. Depending on your ultimate goals, you will want to find the tool that makes most sense for you.

Before you begin learning Italian, you should remember to sit down and make a serious commitment to learning the language. It can be a tough process but if you stick to it, you will be greatly rewarded. On the other hand, don't just simply do grammar exercises and read textbooks, you should also enjoy yourself in Italian, too! Watch an Italian film or buy an Italian language CD. You will find that these activities can be some of the most rewarding when learning Italian.

Author Robertson Kunz has a language learning guide: learn a foreign language fast. Italian learners: learn fluent Italian in 3 months.

What are some of the reasons that one might want to take a look at the Japanese language? For one, anime is a great cultural item that has become particularly big in many parts of the world including the United States.

Japan is also liked by many people because it has a strong traditional culture and a very strong business culture which has promoted Japan to being the second largest economy in the world.

Japanese is a language like any other foreign language in its approach but we also must remember a few things if we want to be successful in learning it.

For English speakers, Japanese is a more difficult language to learn because it does not use the roman script and also because there are few cognates.

Spanish or French, on the other hand, use the same script as English and also share many words because English borrowed a great number of words from these languages and other Latin influences thus resulting in many cognates between the languages. This means that you can pick up a great number of words simply because they are very similar to the English equivalents.

This does not mean that learning Japanese is impossible, but rather that it is a bit more difficult to learn.

What this truly means is that you must have a strong desire to learn that Japanese language if you are going to be successful in becoming proficient in it.

If you really want to get to that high level in Japanese, you have to make sure that these reasons are foremost in your heart.

This can either be your interest in something like anime or it can be something like a business investment for your future.

This will ultimately keep you going on the long journey that studying Japanese entails. So, make sure that you are able to stay strong when studying and keep going no matter what. Just remember your reason for studying Japanese every time that you feel you are beginning to falter in your studies.

Author Robertson Kunz has a language learning guide: learn a foreign language fast. Japanese learners: learn fluent Japanese.

Spanish is a language that has in recent years interested many in its study. Spanish is a common choice to learn for foreign speakers. In high schools today, Spanish is quickly becoming the language of choice to learn for students.

In the United States in particular, Spanish communities have grown greatly in recent years leading to an even greater demand for Spanish speaking skills.

If you are thinking about learning to speak Spanish, maybe you are doing so because you want an advantage in your job or current occupation. Or, perhaps you just want to make better friends with your co-workers or clients.

Whatever the case may be, learning a new language can be a rewarding endeavor. This is not to say that it is an easy one, it can be very difficult to learn a foreign language. However, there are a few tips you can be aware of in order to improve upon the process.

If you are trying to learn a new foreign language like Spanish, it is best to study a little bit each day instead of a lot at one time and then not much for a while.

The reason for this is because the longer you wait between study periods, the more you will forget and the more time you will thus need to spend reviewing instead of gaining new ground in the material.

This process also has the added benefit of conditioning your mind to the foreign language, in this case, Spanish, so that you are able to adapt better to the new sounds, grammatical structures and more that occur in it.

So, for whatever reason you are studying Spanish, I wish you good luck in your studies! It is a great language to learn and can provide you with many rewards if studied properly.

Robertson B. Kunz is the author of a language learning guide to help you get fluent in a foreign language faster. Visit his website to get more great information on learning languages. Also, find more great information on learn Spanish articles.

If you are thinking about studying Italian, you are probably wondering how long it is going to take you to achieve fluency. In this article, I will explain how you can achieve basic fluency in Italian in 3 months or less by following this plan.

Many people end up taking foreign language classes for years and still cannot hold a basic conversation in Italian. On the other hand, I know of many people who have become fluent in Italian and a variety of other foreign languages in less than 3 months.

Before I reveal this plan, I should note to you that if you already are fluent in another romance language like French or Spanish, you will find this much easier to achieve. Even if you have only studied a foreign language but not necessarily a romance language, you will still get an extra boost. On the other hand, if you have never studied a foreign language before, you may find this a bit hard at first because you are not used to learning foreign languages.

The bottom line is that it is possible to learn fluent Italian in 3 months but it will require a commitment to studying each day.

Let's go over some basic numbers so that you can see for yourself what is required to get to the basic fluency level in Italian.

Many language experts say that in most European languages including Italian, the 1000 most commonly used words make up 85% of common speech while the 3000 most commonly used words make up 95% of common speech. For our basic fluency goals in Italian, we will want to hit the 3000 word mark.

Also, many language experts tell us that in order for an English speaker to learn a European language like Italian, Spanish or French, it requires about 200 hours of active study time.

If you study Italian for 3 months, that means you get 90 study days. Since our goal is to learn 3000 Italian words, that means 33 new Italian words per day. If you study Italian every day for 2 hours, you will get 180 hours of Italian study by the end of 3 months which basically meets the 200 hour mark.

You may believe that learning 33 new Italian words per day is too difficult. However, remember that you have 2 hours of active study each day which means you only have to learn 16 new words per hour. This translates to 1 word every 4 minutes.

Take into consideration the fact that many cognates exist between Italian and English like the English word "international" being "internazionale" in Italian and you will see that you will be able to pick up many Italian words in less than 5 seconds.

Of course, you'll probably have a little less time to study vocabulary since you will want to devote time to reviewing words that you learned on previous days and also look into practicing forming sentences and making sure your grammar is correct. All in all, you should have enough time to reach your basic fluency goal in Italian.

Basically, if you can study Italian for 2 hours every day for a 3 month period and learn 3000 Italian words during that time, you will achieve your goal of basic Italian fluency! Remember that in order to achieve this goal, you will need to stay committed and keep making progress day after day. If you can stick with your plan, then you will be insured Italian fluency success.

If you're looking for an MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) training program, be aware that companies offer quite diverse courses; some are much better than others. You'll come across a variety of courses, whether you're a beginner, or a professional looking to gain acknowledged certifications. Each scenario requires a specialised course, so pay attention to check you're on the right one before making a start. Search for a training provider that talks with you so they get to know what you're looking to do, and can help you identify what you'll be doing, long before they discuss course options.

So, why should we consider qualifications from the commercial sector rather than more traditional academic qualifications gained through the state educational establishments? The IT sector is of the opinion that for mastery of skill sets for commercial use, certified accreditation from such organisations as Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe is closer to the mark commercially - for much less time and money. The training is effectively done by concentrating on the skills that are really needed (along with a proportionate degree of associated knowledge,) instead of going into the heightened depths of background non-specific minutiae that computer Science Degrees often do - to pad out the syllabus.

The bottom line is: Accredited IT qualifications tell an employer precisely what skills you have - the title is a complete giveaway: i.e. I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Planning and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Infrastructure'. Consequently an employer can identify exactly what they need and what certifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.

We can see a myriad of jobs and positions available in Information Technology. Arriving at the correct choice out of this complexity is generally problematic. Consequently, if you don't have any know-how of the IT market, how can you expect to know what any qualified IT worker spends their day doing? And of course decide on which educational path provides the best chances for ultimate success. Arriving at the right choice really only appears through a systematic analysis covering many varying key points:

* Personality plays a major part - what things get your juices flowing, and what are the activities that put a frown on your face.

* Are you aiming to accomplish an important aim - for instance, working from home sometime soon?

* What salary and timescale needs you may have?

* There are many ways to train in IT - there's a need to gain some key facts on what makes them different.

* Having a cold, hard look at how much time and effort that you're going to put into it.

To be honest, you'll find the only real way to gain help on these matters is through a chat with someone who has years of experience in IT (and chiefly it's commercial requirements.)

You should remember: the actual training program or the accreditation is not the ultimate goal; the career that you're getting the training for is. Too many training companies over-emphasise just the training course. It's a sad fact, but the majority of trainees begin programs that seem amazing from the prospectus, but which provides a job that doesn't satisfy. Just ask several university students for examples.

Spend some time thinking about how much you want to earn and how ambitious you are. This will influence what certifications you'll need to attain and what you can expect to give industry in return. We recommend that students seek guidance and advice from a professional advisor before making your final decision on a study path, so there's no doubt that the content of a learning package provides the skills necessary.

A study programme must provide a properly recognised accreditation at the finale - and not some unimportant 'in-house' printed certificate to hang in your hallway. From an employer's viewpoint, only the major heavyweights such as Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco or CompTIA (as an example) give enough bang for your buck. Nothing else hits the mark.

One useful service offered by some training providers is a programme of Job Placement assistance. This is to steer you into your first IT role. But don't place too much emphasis on it - it's easy for training companies to overstate it's need. In reality, the need for well trained IT people in this country is the reason you'll find a job.

However, what is relevant is to have CV and Interview advice and support though; also we would encourage everybody to work on polishing up their CV as soon as training commences - don't wait till you've finished your exams. It's possible that you won't have even passed your first exam when you land your first junior support position; although this can't and won't happen unless you've posted your CV on job sites. You'll normally experience better results from a specialised and independent local recruitment service than you'll get from a training provider's national service, because they will understand the local industry and employment needs.

In a nutshell, as long as you focus the same level of energy into getting your first job as into studying, you're not going to hit many challenges. A number of students inexplicably put hundreds of hours into their training and studies and then call a halt once qualified and appear to be under the impression that jobs will come to them.

There are many foreign languages to learn but if you are considering Italian, great! Italian is the descendent of Latin but is considered to have much simpler grammar than its ancestor. Additionally, Italian is used by over 60 million people so you will have plenty of people to practice with.

Many people learn Italian today for many different reasons. Getting an edge in the job market by learning Italian or learning simply because one has Italian ancestry are two of many reasons. Many people learn Italian for an upcoming vacation or intend to retire to Italy. In any of these cases, learning the Italian language can be a great experience.

If you already speak another romance language like Spanish or French, you will find that Italian is very similar. Many linguists estimate that the lexical similarity between Italian and French is 89% while the lexical similarity between Italian and Spanish is 82%. Even if you have only studied Spanish or French in high school, you will find that the grammar is quite similar and easy to pick up.

Italian is considered to be a very beautiful language. English speakers know that Italian has much emphasis on vowels including the fact that many, many Italian words end in vowels.

Some differences in Italian from English include the fact that there are two genders for nouns: masculine and feminine. It will be necessary to learn which gender a noun is everytime you learn a new noun. You will also find that Italian verbs conjugate quite differently based on the subject.

Word order, however, is quite similar between Italian and English. Both languages are subject-verb-object languages and because the syntax is similar, it will be very easy for you to start putting together your own sentences in Italian even as a learner.

Because so many people are interested in learning Italian, there is a great variety of Italian language learning programs for you to choose from. From audio programs to traditional textbooks, you will never be at a loss for materials to learn from.

Whatever your Italian language goals may be, remember that to succeed in learning any foreign language, you should make a commitment to learning the language everyday and continue to apply effort to your studies for as long as it may take to reach your goals, even years if you are aiming for fluency. But don't forget to have fun at the same time! Make sure to enjoy Italian by listening to Italian music and watching Italian films. These cultural elements can be the most fun and most rewarding parts of learning Italian.

The CCNA certification is the way to go for training in Cisco. With it, you'll learn how to deal with maintaining and installing switches and routers. The internet is made up of many routers, and commercial ventures that have different locations rely on them to connect their computer networks.

You may end up employed by an internet service provider or possibly a large or international company that's spread out geographically but still wants secure internal data communication. Both types of jobs command good salaries.

Having the right skills and understanding ahead of getting going on the Cisco CCNA is essential. So find an advisor who will know what you need.

Does job security truly exist anymore? In the UK for instance, with industry changing its mind at alarming speeds, there doesn't seem much chance. It's possible though to discover market-level security, by looking for areas that have high demand, tied with a shortage of skilled staff.

The 2006 United Kingdom e-Skills study highlighted that 26 percent of all available IT positions haven't been filled because of a lack of trained staff. That means for every 4 jobs that are available throughout the computer industry, there are barely three qualified workers to fill that need. This alarming reality clearly demonstrates the requirement for more properly trained computer professionals around Great Britain. With the market evolving at such a speed, is there any other area of industry worth considering for a new career.

How are we supposed to arrive at an informed decision then? With such prospects, we have to know where we should look - and what to be investigating.

Ignore the typical salesman that just tells you what course you should do without an in-depth conversation to gain understanding of your current abilities plus your experience level. Always check they have access to a generous array of training so they're able to solve your training issues. With a strong background, or sometimes a little work-based experience (possibly even some previous certification?) then it could be that your starting level will vary from a trainee who has no experience. It's usual to start with a user-skills course first. Starting there can make the transition to higher-level learning a much easier going.

The classroom style of learning we remember from school, with books and manuals, is usually pretty hard going. If all this is ringing some familiar bells, look for learning programmes which have a majority of interactive, multimedia parts. Long-term memory is enhanced when multiple senses are involved - educational experts have expounded on this for as long as we can remember.

Interactive full motion video involving demonstration and virtual lab's will forever turn you away from traditional book study. And you'll find them fun and interesting. You'll definitely want a training material demonstration from the training company. You'll want to see slide-shows, instructor-led videos and lab's for you to practice your skills in.

Often, companies will only use online training only; and while this is acceptable much of the time, think what will happen if internet access is lost or you get intermittent problems and speed issues. A safer solution is the provision of actual CD or DVD ROMs which removes the issue entirely.

Students will sometimes miss checking on something of absolutely vital importance - how their training provider breaks up the training materials, and into how many bits. You may think that it makes sense (with most training taking 1-3 years to pass all the required exams,) for a training company to release one module at a time, until you've passed all the exams. But: What if you find the order prescribed by the provider doesn't suit you. It may be difficult to get through each and every section inside their defined time-scales?

For the perfect solution, you want everything at the start - so you'll have them all to come back to at any time in the future - whenever it suits you. Variations can then be made to the order that you move through the program if you find another route more intuitive.

A lot of commercial training providers only give support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later; not many go late into the evening (after 8-9pm) or cover weekends properly. Avoid training courses that only support you through a message system when it's outside of usual working hours. Training companies will try to talk you round from this line of reasoning. But, no matter how they put it - you want to be supported when you need the help - not at times when they find it cheaper to provide it.

The very best programs tend to use an online access 24 hours-a-day service utilising a variety of support centres throughout multiple time-zones. You'll have a simple interface which seamlessly accesses whichever office is appropriate any time of the day or night: Support when you need it. Never make do with a lower level of service. Direct-access 24x7 support is the only kind to make the grade for computer-based study. Perhaps you don't intend to study during the evenings; but for the majority of us however, we're working at the time when most support is available.

An effective training package will also include accredited exam simulation and preparation packages. Avoid depending on unofficial preparation materials for exams. Their phraseology is sometimes startlingly different - and this leads to huge confusion once in the actual exam. As you can imagine, it is really important to know that you are completely prepared for the real exam before taking it. Revising simulated tests helps build your confidence and saves you time and money on wasted exam attempts.

A service provided by many trainers is a Job Placement Assistance program. It's intention is to steer you into your first IT role. Having said that, occasionally people are too impressed with this facility, for it's really not that difficult for any focused and well taught person to secure work in the IT environment - as there is such a shortage of trained staff.

Get your CV updated straight-away though - look to your training company for advice on how to do this. Don't procrastinate and leave it until you've qualified. It can happen that you haven't even got to the exam time when you will get your initial junior support role; but this can't and won't happen unless your CV is with employers. Most often, a local IT focused employment service - who make their money when they've found you a job - will be more pro-active than a sector of a centralised training facility. Also of course they should know the local area and commercial needs.

A regular grievance of some course providers is how hard people are focused on studying to get top marks in their exams, but how little effort that student will then put into getting the position they've studied for. Get out there and hustle - you might find it's fun.