Shaders

Hi

What sort of software & hardware do I need to use shaders?
How to do the shader?
How to link shader to the program I am writing?
What in the fact is shader?

Please, aswer me these questions or give the links that can be useful. Thanks.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=opengl+shaders

First youll need a graphics card that supports opengl 1.5 or directx9. As for how the shaders work and get them setup i might recommend the new orange book www.3dshaders.com !