This works for me - did you remember to add the onLoad in the body:
<html>
<head>
<title>*** Your Title Here ***</title>
<script>
//Scroll message in status barr
var msg = "bla bla bla... "
function showMsg()
{
window.status = msg
msg = msg.substring(1, msg.length) + msg.substring(0, 1)
scrollmsgID = setTimeout("showMsg()", 150)
}
</script>
</head>
<body onLoad="showMsg()">
yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
</body>
</html>
Else see the post in the 2006 forums:
http://osprey.unisa.ac.za/phorum/read.php?10,41216
If you still cannot get it going post here again, but upload the html file with the javascript to your folder on osprey (let me know what is your surname) and I will look at your code over the weekend