Note: Javascript and Java are very different.
Below this message, a black box should appear with white lettering that says "Flash is Running". Below that will be the version of the Flash Player that is running in your browser. As long as this box appears and the first number in the version is equal to or greater than 7, you should not have problems with any of the Flash movies in the Geology Labs Online section of this site.
Below this message, a black box should appear with white lettering that says "Java is Running". Below that will be the version of the Java Virtual Machine that is running in your browser. As long as this box appears and the version is 1.1.8 or greater, you should not have problems with any of the Java applets on this site.
The two exceptions to this are if the name of the Java VM manufacturer is Microsoft or Apple. If it is Microsoft, you should upgrade to Sun's Java VM by going to http://www.java.com/. If it is Apple and you are running on Mac OS X, the version must start with 1.3. If it starts with 1.4 or anything greater, you will have problems with the applets on this site. Generally, this can be corrected by using Mozilla Firefox instead of Apple's Safari browser.
Please note that it can take a while for the Java box to appear.