[tlug] Whoops... messed up home directory permissions

[Dave M G <martin@example.com>]

TLUG,

I'm on the UIM mailing list trying to figure out a problem with an 
undesired file that gets created by UIM. I've mentioned this in another 
thread in this list, but what I need to solve here is an entirely 
separate problem that was created as an off-shoot.
Some advice a guy gave me was to set the permissions of my home 
directory so that no one can write to it, and see if any process throws 
an error when trying to create the unwanted file.
I tried that, and found I could not log into my own account.

Eventually, I booted to a prompt, used sudo to chmod the directory to 
777, and then I could log in.
But when I logged in, it told me that my home directory should not be 
readable or write-able by everyone, and that I should set the 
permissions to 644.
So I went into a terminal, and set the permissions of /home/dave to 644.

And then again I couldn't start any programs, save any data, or log in.

I had to repeat the process of booting to a prompt, setting the 
directory to 777, and then logging in.
I get the same error and recomendation to set the directory to 644, but 
that clearly doesn't work.
What permissions settings is my home directory supposed to have? And how 
do I set it?
--
Dave M G