Yes. some ISPs will set the short_open_tag to false to enforce the declaration of the server side script language in use. Personally I do it anyways so that anyone comming along after me will know that it is php and no asp (I've seen this confusion before... you'd think that the ; on the end of each line would havbe given a clue). But, yes it can be found in your php.ini file (requires server restart after changing).

-tg