http://ask.metafilter.com/tags/sis Questions tagged with 'sis' at Ask MetaFilter. Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:56:54 -0800 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:56:54 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://ask.metafilter.com/111777/Comparison%2Dof%2Dfreeopen%2Dsource%2Dstudent%2Dinformation%2Dsystems Best free, open source, web-based student information system? A non-profit organization I do work for is looking for a free, open-source, web-based student information system for tracking grades, attendance, counseling notes and doing scheduling for their summer educational programs. <br> <br> Ease of setup and hosting isn't a concern; I have lots of experience on setting up F/OSS database apps on various platforms, and they actually have extensive hosting options I'll be able to use. Ease of actual use tracking student information, on the other hand, is paramount, and I'm finding that aspect difficult to evaluate. They'd prefer to host in house, but external hosting isn't a dealbreaker.<br> <br> Any experience and/or recommendations, or a pointer to something you feel is an apt comparison? tag:ask.metafilter.com,2009:site.111777 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:56:54 -0800 database sis I EAT TAPAS http://ask.metafilter.com/31026/Can%2DI%2Dfix%2Dthese%2Drecent%2Dhorizontal%2Dblack%2Dglitches%2Don%2Dthis%2Donboard%2DSiS%2Dchipset How can I fix my SiS onboard video? What did I even do to break it? I recently reinstalled my girlfriend's Linux machine, adding a hard drive in the process. For some reason, the display shows horizontal glitches and every once in a while blinks black for a few seconds. This is onboard SiS video. It is independent of monitor. This sounds quite like <a href="http://www.winischhofer.at/linuxsispart1.shtml#13">video bandwidth issues</a>, but I'm not exactly certain, because of two reasons. The 99% of the time these horizontal black glitches occur during a keystroke. You can tap out a drum solo on the spacebar, and the flickers will follow as well. Is this typical of video bandwidth issues? Another thing is that assuming it is memory bandwidth issues, I decided to set the display to 640x480@8 bits per pixel. Still horizontal glitches. This makes me say it isn't a memory bandwidth issue. Another test I performed was playing a video. The "glitch rate" didn't increase.<br> <br> The display also blacks out every once in a while for a few seconds. Here's the kicker--It worked a month ago, and she's never seen the glitches before. I haven't really changed anything except I installed GNOME. However, Xfce4 *also* has this problem. I've tried to see if text mode has this problem, but its hard to see the glitches on a black background. X detects ~64 megs of video memory. This *should* be enough by my calculations for 3.5 frames of 1280x1024@16bpp. I've used alternate monitors and alternate video cables.<br> <br> What would do this? BIOS settings? Was there an Xorg update recently that would break something? I'll accept "random hardware failure" if there are no other choices, but I can't help but wonder. It's extremely hard to work with this machine, and I'd really hate to have to replace it this soon. I've googled with my usually amazing google-fu, but have had no luck. tag:ask.metafilter.com,2006:site.31026 Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:46:47 -0800 computers flicker linux sis suck video xorg adamwolf