Well, there is no variable to set for number of events, but you can call getEvents for a sufficiently long amount of time, then display only the number of events you want to. If you are using the default ssi.html, make the following changes:
1) Find <%FOREACH EVENTLIST%> and place <%EVENTLOOP:%> on the line before it.
2) Find <%total_events++;%> and move it after <%FOREACH EVENT%>.
3) On the next line after the <%total_events++;%> that you just moved, place <%if (total_events == 5) { last EVENTLOOP; } %> replacing the 5 with the number of events you would like to show.
That should work, I think. Let me know if you have any problems.
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David Whittaker
http://www.uabcm.com/
http://www.csworkbench.com/