Id like to know how to permanently hold open the first slider just how it is in hover over so that the full image is displayed on the first post and the other 3 are cropped down like they are on the hover
the slider is done by the kwicks.js-script, here is an example page with the behaviour which you ask for:
http://devsmash.com/projects/kwicks/1.5.1/examples/sticky-click
the only difference is that that example is vertical
here is the correct way: open kwicks.js
at line 17 change
sticky: false,
to sticky: true,