in reply to Startup cost, CGI performance

u could also try this one :
http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/smokeping/
then look for SpeedyCGI link... sorry i can give it to u, for some reason the page don't load for me...
excerpt from the page :
.... The CGI script uses SpeedyCGI to achieve mod_perl like performanc +e without the need to deploy mod_perl on your web server....