Ahh...that was it!
Here I was expecting to be able to edit Compiz settings from within KDE, but that does not work.
It is slightly annoying that ccsm does not show up in the application menu. But typing ccsm in a terminal brings it up and sure enough, 'wobbly windows' was enabled in the configuration. Turning that off solved my problem.
Thanks guys for all your help. I'm still learning KDE4.
radioz
p.s. Is there a way to mark a topic as solved? (never mind, I figured it out)