Specific User Preferences

hi, i've tried searching for this and played around with various things myself, i believe that sql may be the key to this problem, however my sql scripting skills are next to nothing, if someone can help me it would be great.

Problem: i need to return the value of a specific preferences of a user (not the person who's browsing) for validation, the UserID of the user in questioned is known.

mightymango

Not had the chance to test it but I think the following should work:
$getme = $Context->ObjectFactory->NewContextObject($Context, 'UserManager');
$who = $getme->GetUserById($userid);
$test = $who->Preference('TestPreference');

Obviously you would change 'TestPreference' to the name of the preference you are looking for.