hey Der Kaiser. i have the same problem you are having with the red lines when using nurbs. apprarently it is a video card problemaccording to the research i have done. Maya doesnt support most gaming cards (i have a ati 9700). If you search on the forums i believe there is a post that goes more into detail about this.

As for the 2nd problem. you can hit the + to to increase the size of your manipulaters.