DVD-R Discs Seem Blank After Sucessful K3B Burn

Discs burned as Data DVD with K3B defaults

1st problem: really old version on K3B

Install K3B using directions here: http://k3b.plainblack.com/installation
Make sure requirements are installed.

Great generic howto on K3B burning here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=218165&highlight=k3b+blank+dvd+after+burn

Similar problem to mine here, ... solution?
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/3010

Lost Running Applications / Programs in Toolbar

A while ago, I was adding and removing applications from the panel, and the spacing between them got all screwy. Next thing I know my list of running applications is gone.

Couldn't find it for the life of me. Gave up trying to find an answer, said "screw it", and just started using alt+tab to switch between running programs. Still annoying though.

Incidentally, I discovered if you move your mouse cursor over the title (top) of a window that's open, using mouse's scroll wheel will make you switch between the last two windows.

Anyway...

Happened to be on irc.freenode.net #kubuntu ... and someone there posted a similar problem. To get back your application list in your toolbar / panel:

1. right-click on toolbar in an empty spot
2. click "Add Applet to Panel" (this is where you say AHHHHHH!)
3. click Taskbar and OK.

Import Thunderbird Mail into Kmail

I wanted to import my messages from Thunderbird into Kmail, so I could use Kontact as my entire personal information tool. I could not find a tool anywhere in Kmail / Kontact (or even just right in Kmail) to import mail from another program. After Googling it, I found it should be in Tools -> Import Messages. The odd thing is I didn't have that menu option. Another thing to try is using a tool mozilla2kmail.pl, but that didn't work for me.

Cliff's Notes:

• make sure kmailcvt is installed. Use Synaptic Package Manager to get it.
• then in Kontact/Kmail use File -> Import Messages to import messages from Thunderbird.

Story:
Kmail 1.9.1 using KDE 3.5.2

Found some wonky directions here, but that seemed too complicated.

I looked up the Kmail (via the menus in Kontact/Kmail). The help file seemed to be out of date, web address gets rerouted here.

A bit of a beef I have with the Kontact web site is that they don't give you the current revision of the entire package, nor the current revision of the components of the package. I looked at FAQ of the Kontact page. I didn't see a link to an IRC channel, but I tried out

irc.freenode.net #kontact

The channel does exist, but appears to be a small developer's channel. No one seemed to be awake.

The aforementioned mozilla2kmail.pl script had to be run with

chmod +x mozilla2kmail.pl
sudo ./mozilla2kmail.pl

which gave an error that "./home/kat/Mail is not a directory."
To get help you need to type

./mozilla2kmail.pl --help

which is different than indicated ("mozilla2kmail --help")! This command gives me

"You need to install the perl-doc package to use this program."

I install perl-doc using Synaptic Package Manager, but I still get ". /home/kat/Mail is not a directory." after doing a "sudo ./mozilla2kmail.pl"

Did more searching and came up with the Cliff's Notes solution, which works. The only stickler is that when the import runs, it doesn't make it obvious what it wants you to open. I selected the entire mail folder (/home/kat/.thunderbird/fzcc2crp.default/Mail/) which had two folders in it: a "Local Folder" and a "pop.gmail.com folder." This seems to work.