Module development and code questions

This include file for module Views (/modules/views/modules/views_upload.inc) implements views functionality on behalf of upload.module. Enjoy!

i have downloaded "privatemsg.module". i can't find the "privatemsg" on the menus, it is lost. i can enter the code like "http://www.blocparty.org/?q=privatemsg " but it isnt on the menus. what can i do? please help.

I made this module from another forum topic. The purpose is to disable the changing of a user name and password. It does a great job at that. The only problem I have is when I want to create a new user as an administrator I have to disable this module. It is blocking any of the form fields included in the userchange module code, these fields are obviously crucial for making a user.

Does anyone know any drupal speficic code that can make this module be null for an administrator on the site? If not, does anyone know how to automatically disable this code when an administrator logs in?

<?php
function userchange_help($section) {
  switch ($section) {
    case 'admin/modules#description':
           return t('This prevents office users from changing their user name and password.');
  }
}

function userchange_user($op, &$edit, &$user, $category = NULL) {
  switch ($op) {
    case 'validate':
      //lets validate the user info
      if ($_POST['edit']['name'] != $user->name) {
          form_set_error('name', t('You cannot change your user name right now. Only an administrator can perform that task.'));
      }
	if ($_POST['edit']['pass1'] != $user->pass1) {
          form_set_error('pass1', t('You cannot change your password right now. Only an administrator can perform that task.'));
      }
	if ($_POST['edit']['pass2'] != $user->pass2) {
     }
      break;
  }
}
?>

I am wondering about the logic behind keeping contrib modules updated to CVS...? Anyone have reasons as to why they keep the HEAD of their modules updated alongside Drupal HEAD instead of continuing development for the current major version until the next version is released? I think it makes for a significant waste of effort as the work can't be used and you continuously have to update it to keep it up with very few people actually making use of your code until the next version is release... but I am figuring that there is some logic behind it...? can someone please enlighten me...?

I've followed the AJAX autocomplete tutorial in the handbook in order to add a great autocomplete function to my own module.

It works, however after the first search is performed, Drupal appears to log out the current user.

So if I then tried a different search in the same auto complete box I get a 403 error message back. If i then submit the form, it goes to an access denied page.

Why could an autocomplete call cause my Drupal users to be automatically logged out of the website?

Hi there.
Is there an easy default and 'drupal' way of accesssing the attachments of a node uploaded using the
upload.module?
If I load a node using the function:
node_load($nid);

are there any defined fields which will allow me to access to an array of the node's attachment for example?

Would I otherwise need to SQL query the database with my own written query to pull out those attachments?

I can't use the standard node-template code snipplet that follows:

if ($links) {