Well, the person outlined two updates below "is" using a plain version of IE6, that is, if you do not include using AdShield. AdShield blocks pop-ups and banner ads. Since I do not have any, it is rather pointless to have it running on my site. However, this is the intriguing thing. Cut and pasted from the home page is this "feature:"
Improves performance using optional background downloading and caching of pages/images linked to the ones you’re viewing.
Improves performance for "whom?" That completely explains the reason for the log file entries. AdShield does not conform to the robots.txt standard and, therefore, indiscriminately "sucks everything," while at the exact same time:
Suppresses the download and display of ad images and frames.
Wow. Even though I am highly "anti-banner ads," this gives great cause for those sites that depend on ad revenue to be annoyed at this type of program. Not only does this program block their income generator, it creates "more traffic" by pre-fetching links "just in case." Not exactly sure if the program kills the request for the ad content or downloads it and just does not "display" it to the viewer. That will require more research.
I know there is a Rant in this news update, somewhere…