htaccess issue?

You installed a multisite in the directory of another Multisite?

So … you have one install in /public_html/ and another in /public_html/second ?

Yep.

And these are totally separate? That should be okay, oddly enough (physical folders take precedence over virtual ones).

What’s in the second folder’s htaccess?

Yep. Two separate folders.
Actually, I get the /public_html/ 404’s page when I attempt to see /public_html/subfolder/site/.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /tech-2011/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

# uploaded files
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule  ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $1 [L]
RewriteRule  ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(.*\.php)$ $1 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

on the second site, do the permalinks work in the main blog?

Well that’s the right .htaccess. What happens if you make a page in tech-2011? Like domain.com/tech-2011/about ?

@ipstenu The page doesn’t work. Odd.

@andrea_r Permalinks don’t work, either. Odd.

Now I’m really confused!

Do UGLY permalinks work on the second site?

Ugly works, pretty takes me to the /public_html/ 404’s page, again. I’m cool w/ using ugly, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t help my /tech-2011/ issue. ??

Any other ideas?
Thank you SO mcuh thus far.

Obviously you can get to tech-2011/wp-admin so … at a guess your apache install isn’t reading the htaccess in the subfolder.

solution? :S
Is there one?

Permalinks don’t work, either. Odd.

Nope, not odd. Tells us exactly what is wrong.

Basically like Ipstenu said, apache has been directed to not read any htacess file in that folder. Talk to your host. Don’t even mention the multisite part yet, just tell them pretty permalinks do not work.