KPackageKit trouble

For some reason every week or so in Kubuntu I get this error in KPackageKit when I open it after I notice I am not having automatic updates:

The package list needs to be rebuilt.
This should have been done by the backend automatically.

Also, if you try to run apt-get you get:

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header

I am not quite certain why it happens yet, but the following fix works:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
sudo apt-get update

Which I got from Ubuntu forums/

nVidia screen flicker

So a couple of days ago I started to get a very annoying screen flicker in kubuntu. Every 30 seconds or go the screen would flash black and occasionally there would be a white line in between flashes or flashes of the screen. It could be stopped by alt-tabbing a couple of times. I gathered the problemw as with nVidia (I have a GT220) or something, so I went to nvidia-settings and turned PowerMizer to "Prefer Maximum Performance" from "Adaptive performance". I have the 260.19.06 drivers.

I haven't had a problem since.

UQ soefile access

So this post is mac-related. So I have a several year old mac at home (PPC! running 10.4.11) and even with my University's VPN I still couldn't access myFiles using the network address that usually works locally on linux and windows on campus.
Normally the addresses are (works for both staff and students with a substitution of s1234567 with your my.UQ username):

All Campuses except Ipswich students - \\soefile\s1234567
Ipswich Campus students - \\uqistudent\s1234567
Gatton campus students - \\UQGfile\s1234567$

But that wouldn't work in the Go->Connect to Server Dialog. What does work (at least for St. Lucia, I'm not an Ipswich or Gatton student so I can't confirm it for those campuses) is:
smb://soefile.uq.edu.au/uqxxxxx or smb://soefile.uq.edu.au/s1234567

But you can't browse the "local" network that you are VPNed into for some peculiar reason. Also, you can then save that connection as a shortcut to your desktop by dragging the network icon and name from the top of the finder window to the desktop (or any folder for that matter), but for some reason not to the sidebar.

Flash-plugin

Finally updated to the new Chrome (10.0.648.204) a couple of days ago. KPackageKit had been trying for a while, but apparently not succeeding (not that there were any errors, just that every time I logged in it would say it still needed to update) which I assume is due to me having chrome being open at the time.

So the other day I update chrome and today I try to go to something with Flash. Uh-oh! Broken!
I tried to use reKonq, but that too is broken (I have all the konqueror plugins installed via kpackagekit)?

This indicates that probably something went wrong with flash and not Chrome and I just didn't notice.
I did this:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure flashplugin-installer

ta-da! works in everything now! I run 64-bit kubuntu, if it matters.