The thing that happens when you bring your mouse to the top left is called Expo. you could disable it completely in compizconfig, or just change its bindings to something you don't do on accident.
the top right corner one is called Scale.
i have no idea what the <super> key is but i cannot find it on my laptop. on ubuntu the windows key is <super L> but on here it's the <meta-key>.
on ubuntu if i press windows key and scroll up or down i get the zoom and pan effect. not sure how to bind it to mouse wheel on knoppix. and the navcursor that usually happens when you click the mouse wheel button doesnt happen in knoppix. does anybody know how to set that up?