is there a way to tell that poolpushd is connecting to bitcoind?
$ pushpool --debug=2 --config=[your config file] --stderr --foreground
check your logs, normally /tmp/shares.log and /tmp/requests.log see if something funny appears
check your bitcoin client's debug.log to see if pushpool sends getwork requests
triple check your DB config
double check the filesystem permissions for the log files directory
if all of that fails direct your friends to an existing pool and erase system32 directory, it makes your computer faster
also post your pushpool config, bitcoin config and the command line used to run a remote miner, maybe there's something obvious here