Get a list of attribute options from Magento

$attribute = Mage::getModel('eav/config')->getAttribute('customer','cateinterest');
$options = $attribute->getSource()->getAllOptions();

The above code does not work if the resource_model is empty. The following snippet does the job:

$attribute = Mage::getModel('eav/entity_attribute')->loadByCode(Mage_Catalog_Model_Product::ENTITY, 'YOUR_ATTRIBUTE_CODE');

/** @var $attribute Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Attribute */
$valuesCollection = Mage::getResourceModel('eav/entity_attribute_option_collection')
->setAttributeFilter($attribute->getId())
->setStoreFilter(0, false);

It looks like that you initialize attribute by yourself, instead of using Magento attribute initialization process:

Mage::getSingleton('eav/config')
    ->getAttribute($entityType, $attributeCode)

Because since 1.4.x Magento has separate attribute models for catalog and customers model and definition of default source model for catalog_product now is moved from EAV attribute model (Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Attribute) to the catalog one (Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute).

As a result, some catalog attributes won't work with the EAV attribute model. Particularly those that use Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Attribute_Source_Table but don't explicitly define it (color, manufacturer, etc.).

The following code snippet should work perfectly on your installation:

$attribute = Mage::getSingleton('eav/config')
    ->getAttribute(Mage_Catalog_Model_Product::ENTITY, 'color');

if ($attribute->usesSource()) {
    $options = $attribute->getSource()->getAllOptions(false);
}

By the way Mage_Eav_Model_Config model has a lot of helpful methods, that can be used in your development, so don't hesitate to look into this model.

<?php
  //Possible color value
  $attribute = Mage::getModel('eav/config')->getAttribute('catalog_product', 'color'); //"color" is the attribute_code
  $allOptions = $attribute->getSource()->getAllOptions(true, true);
  foreach ($allOptions as $instance) {
    $id = $instance['value']; //id of the option
    $value = $instance['label']; //Label of the option