Readers like their status bars and expect to get certain information from them - don't mess with that relationship. Echoing your page's title on the status bar doesn't give anyone any extra information. Echoing the title of a link on a status bar doesn't provide any extra information either, but remove otherwise useful information. No one expects it, no one it this. Stay away from changing status bars.
Applets are mysterious black boxes to the user.
It's hard for the users to know what the expect, so don't assume you'll know what they expect. Don't use Java or any embedded applets. An appropriate use is when the user is submitting data to the system. An annoying use is when they are used as a method of navigation. Using these things is confusing, cumbersome, and generally annoying.