Module development and code questions

Hello,

my project site has users with their full names (first last) as their usernames. I've been using autocomplete for the search function but it only retrieves entries that are written in the same manner, ie. first last. it won't work if i start typing the last name first. does anybody know how i can edit the default user_autocomplete so that it will work whether i type in the first or the last name when matching entries against the user database...

how could i create a module that would allow certian users to upload vidoes kinda like the page here

http://snowboard.colonies.com/publiccontent/ViewPublicItem.aspx?itemID=4...

I recently downloaded the banner module and did read the install and readme files; however, it is not very detailed for the NON-Knowledgable database editors.

The files required that are suppose to be created be banner itself did not move to the root itself so...
I copied the files that were mentioned to the root directory of druapl; however, nothing happes.
My webserver doesn't have a specific 'terminal' or command area like place to input the commands mentioned.

I tried it in the cron job area but nothing, I still get 1017 error and that db not found.

I'm trying to use my own database to save the data because there are other applications access this DB.

But as my page content is a Drupal node, every time I submit my form, it will add something(node id, title, body..) to the Drupal default database, and this is not what I want, because I don't want a connection between the two databases.

I tried to write my dependent page, it won't touch the Drupal database, but at the same time, I can NOT use the Drupal node hooks, which the 'view'/'edit' tabs are no longer there.

I want to generate primary links from a different php file (a directory script) so that I could have some level of integration.

I could include theme.inc and call theme('links', $primary_links) but where can I get the primary_links value from?

The whole point of this is to prevent the need of hardcoding the navigation bar from within this other script.

Jay