[jQuery] Why does :not([id=blah]) not work?

[Jeremy Carlson]

Hi there,

I'm just starting to explore using jQuery. Like it so far, but I'm
totally thrown by this.

On a page, I'm trying to hide all images in a set except the first
one. Then, when you click on a menu link, another should fade in, and
all others fade out.

The second part works - when you click on a link tag, the image w/ the
ID listed as the href of the link fades in, and any others that are
visible fade out. I'm using this:

$("#central img:not([id=href])").fadeOut("slow");

So I copied that syntax to the initial .ready function, like this:

$("#central img:not([id=thefirst])").hide();

This variable ('thefirst') is created using jQuery.url.attr("anchor"),
whereas 'href' is created using $(this).attr("href"), where (this)
refers to the associated link. I think the key has to be there
somehow, but I don't see it.

I've posted this page at http://jeremycarlson.com/test/jq/portfolio.htm
(there are several alerts thrown in so I can see what the variables
are at any given time, which makes the load a little odd) I just can't
see what's going wrong.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone might offer.

Here is the full js code:

                <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.2.6.js"></script>
                <script type="text/javascript" 
src="jquery.url.packed.js"></script>
                <script type="text/javascript">

                 $(document).ready(function(){

                        if(undefined != jQuery.url.attr("anchor")) {
                                var anchor = jQuery.url.attr("anchor");
                                var thefirst = "#"+anchor;
                                alert (thefirst);
                        } else {
                                var thefirst = "#view1";
                                alert(thefirst);
                        }

                        $("#central img:not([id=thefirst])").hide();

                        $("#central img").css({position:"absolute"});

                        $("#view-menu a").click(function(event){
                                $(this).focus();
                                var href = $(this).attr("href");
                                alert(href);
                                $("#central 
img:not([id=href])").fadeOut("slow");
                                $(href).fadeIn("slow");
                                event.PreventDefault;
                        });
                });
                </script>

Thank you,
Jeremy Carlson