Reviews of The Art Institute Online of Pittsburgh | Tips for Designing Websites

If you’re anything like me, you don’t have time to hit 1 for English, 2 for customer support, 1 for hardware, 2 for laptops, 2 for blah blah blah….just give me a human! Automated phone systems have taken over our lives and and stolen a lot of our time. Fortunately though, there is a way around it! A database is available at http://gethuman.com/us that lists exactly how to reach a human at practically every major company in America. Some examples are:

• Sallie Mae ‑ Student Loans 888‑272‑5543 Don’t press or say anything.
• Apple 800‑275‑2273 Press 000; if virtual rep answers, say “operator.”
• Dell 888‑560‑8324 Press 00 at each prompt.
• Amazon.com 800‑201‑7575 Don’t press or say anything.
• Cingular Wireless 800‑331‑0500 Press *## at each prompt.
• Verizon Wireless 800‑922‑0204 Press #00 or enter phone # then 0 4.

Sliced bread doesn’t have squat on this!

Core77 has put together a great way to scan through portfolios of students of various art schools. As you can imagine, The Art Institutes International is well represented as you can see in this tag cloud below with the second most portfolios of any school:

–> Continue reading ‘Great Collection of Student Portfolios’

People often ask me how I find out about news releases and such before the article makes it into a newspaper or magazine. Newspapers use to be the best way to get the latest scoop, but the internet has changed all of that. Many people bookmark their favorite websites to scope for information every day and can spend quite a bit of time going through each site just to find information that they are interested in. Fortunately, Really Simple Syndication (or RSS) has made that time-consuming process a thing of the past.

RSS is basically a way for you to “subscribe” to a site and they will send a “broadcast” each time they release a new article. It is basically the title of the article and a brief clipping of it or even the entire article. So you might be wondering what this means for you and what you’re supposed to do with this “broadcast.” Here is where the fun stuff kicks in!

–> Continue reading ‘Make More Time in your Day with RSS’

This is a hot deal on a great 24″ LD monitor. This is the lowest price it has been in a long time and it comes with a 3 year warranty! It’s practically the same screen as the Apple Cinema Display at half the price. I use the 21″ version of this at work at it’s a beautiful LCD for graphics. I highly recommend it.

It takes a lot to get me choked up, but this has to be the best sports story I have ever heard of or seen. ESPN ran a story on it and has the video online. If you don’t already have their player installed, it’s free and worth it. Just click here to watch this amazing 4 minute video.

Dell has a smokin’ deal on a 2GB thumb drive for $68.79.  This is perfect for storing assignments for travel or even as a safe backup.  I have the 1GB version of this that I paid almost exactly the same for.  This is a great buy!

Click here to snag it

Amazon has a great deal on the 1GB version as well for 33.29 after rebates.  You can grab that one by clicking here.

The idea behind “social bookmarking� has become incredibly popular lately as del.icio.us led the charge. In a nutshell, it is a website where you create a free account and then you can bookmark your favorite websites & pages by categorizing them with “tags� and even giving them your own description so that you can remember later why you bookmarked the site in the first place.

I was a skeptic and never saw much of a use for it at first. Then I had people asking me for links to sites for various reasons. I found myself sending the same links to multiple people over and over. Then I was in situations where I would be out of town or at work and wondering what the address of that neat site was that I found at home. I needed a way to share my favorite sites with not only other people…but myself as well! Enter social bookmarking.

–> Continue reading ‘Social Bookmarking 101′

I have been working since October as an ad designer for The Atlantic News Telegraph. Recently, I was promoted to Composition Manager. A Composition Manager is basically just an ad designer that happens to be responsible for everything such as mistakes, new clients, layouts, department budget, computer issues, web advertising, and so on. The list could go on forever. I am taking on new tasks daily. I was promoted so quickly due to my eagerness to update and modernize the old. That was an important lesson that I learned right off the bat. Work hard and show enthusiasm for your job and you will be rewarded. When I first began working there, I noticed many things were still being done as they had 5-10 years prior. They hired me because I was in school, had a well organized portfolio, and many fresh enthusiastic ideas.

5 AM
A day in my life is very hectic and chaotic at times. The first thing I think about at 5AM before my workout is… –> Continue reading ‘Working for a Newspaper’

Comes with the 18-55 lens for $1,179 now from Amazon!

*Click here*