Display Attachments and Nodes Together Like Basecamp

I'm getting there but my code is a little sloppy and I would like to show only three of the selected rows instead of between 3 - 6

If anyone could give a few pointers it would be great

function compare_recent_activity($x, $y) {
 if ( $x[2] == $y[2] )
  return 0;
 else if ( $x[2] < $y[2] )
  return 1;
 else
  return -1;
}
      
function get_recent_activity($hierarchy = 0, $limit = 2) {
  
  //Set global variable to use site URL
  global $base_url;
  
  //Get the current 'Term Id' from the function ($hierarchy) select direct children of current term
  $select_terms = db_query("SELECT * FROM {term_hierarchy} h, {term_data} d WHERE h.parent = '%d' AND d.tid = h.tid AND d.vid != '2' AND d.vid != '5'", $hierarchy);
  while ($return_term = db_fetch_object($select_terms)) {
    //Node Query
    $select_nodes = db_query("SELECT DISTINCT t.*, n.*, u.entity_id, u.dst, p.name FROM {term_node} t, {node} n, {url_alias_extra} u, {users} p WHERE t.tid = '%d' AND p.uid = n.uid AND t.nid = n.nid AND n.nid = u.entity_id AND u.entity_type = 'node' ORDER BY n.created DESC LIMIT %d", $return_term->tid, $limit);
    //File Query
    $select_files = db_query("SELECT DISTINCT * FROM {term_node} t, {upload} u, {files} f, {users} p WHERE t.tid = '%d' AND u.nid = t.nid AND f.fid = u.fid AND f.uid = p.uid ORDER BY f.timestamp DESC LIMIT %d", $return_term->tid, $limit);
    print '<div class="admin-panel" id="termid_' . check_plain($return_term->tid) . '">' . "\n";
    
    //Term information query
    $name = db_query("SELECT t.*, d.*, u.* FROM {term_node} t, {term_data} d, {url_alias_extra} u WHERE d.tid = '%d' AND u.entity_id = d.tid AND u.entity_type = 'taxonomy' LIMIT 1", $return_term->tid);
    while ($names = db_fetch_object($name)) {
      
      //Display Term name and link to term above each box
      print '<h2><a href="' . check_plain($base_url) . '/' . check_plain($names->dst) . '" title="' . check_plain($names->name) . '">' . check_plain($names->name) . '</a></h2>' . "\n";
      while ($return_nodes = db_fetch_object($select_nodes)) {
        //Display last 3 nodes in current term
        $rows[] = array('<a href="' . check_plain($base_url) . '/' . check_plain($return_nodes->dst) . '" title="' . check_plain($return_nodes->title) . '">' . check_plain($return_nodes->title) . '</a>', check_plain($return_nodes->name), format_date($return_nodes->created, 'small'));
      }
      while ($return_file = db_fetch_object($select_files)) {
        //Display last 3 attachments in current term
        $rows[] = array('<a href="' . check_plain($base_url) . '/' . check_plain($return_file->filepath) . '">' . check_plain($return_file->description) . '</a>', check_plain($return_file->name), format_date($return_file->timestamp, 'small'));
      }
    }
      
      //Setup headers to display each as a table
      $header = array(
        array('data' => 'Title'),
        array('data' => 'Posted By'),
        array('data' => 'Posted On')
      );
      
      //Make sure we selected rows      
      if (count($rows)) :
        //sort the rows in descending order by posted date
        usort($rows, 'compare_recent_activity');
        //print out the table
        $output = theme('table', $header, $rows);
      else :
        //No rows were available
        $rows[] = array(array('data' => 'Your selection returned no results', 'colspan' => '4'));
        $output = theme('table', $header, $rows);
      endif;
      
      //Build and output the final table
      print $output;
      
      //Clear out the $rows for the next block of information
      $rows = NULL;

    print '</div>' . "\n";
  }
}