Based on the thread here about the bar not working, I have been through that thread and tried it, but it didn't work. For some reason, the float just stopped working correctly. Particularly in IE9, but also other browsers, the bar sit over content text.
Here's what I'm using:
<span class="padding10 fixed-pos shadow border5" style="float:left;position: fixed;width:55px;top: 35%;margin-left: -195px;">
This has not changed, except today when trying to fix it, but I changed it back.
Site: www.myITforum.com