This orthopaedic surgery site

April 13, 2002 2:34 PM

This orthopaedic surgery site seems more like a design exercise than an actual attempt at an informative site. Imagine that someone told you to make the site using poor technology choices, couple it with non-professional content not conducive to trusting the doctors, and add a map to the office that does more to enable chuckles than get people to into the business. It's so bad, it's good, and most definitely do not skip intro on this one.
posted by mathowie (32 comments total)

The intro is excellent. Make sure to check of the map with it car crash.
posted by MaddCutty at 2:39 PM on April 13, 2002

Oh, this has to be a joke. "Schedule a Deposition"? The state-of-Atari 2600-art intro is excellent, though!
posted by yhbc at 2:40 PM on April 13, 2002

skip the intro? now that would be a mistake.

this must be fake, i just tried "physicians" from the menu... and those are you're friendly physicians??
posted by selton at 2:41 PM on April 13, 2002

What the fuck was that? Ahahahahahaha!

Ah, indeed a must see.
posted by Aikido at 3:11 PM on April 13, 2002

"Hello, ev'ry body!"

"Hi, Doctor Nick!"
posted by dong_resin at 3:14 PM on April 13, 2002

I design medical websites for a living and I know for an f-ing fact that I would be tossed out on my ear if I added anything like that to a Dr's website. I couldn't imaging making that design pitch to a Physician. That would be like adding an exploding heart to a cardiologist's website.

...it was pretty funny though.
posted by mkelley at 3:16 PM on April 13, 2002

It's so bad, it's good, and most definitely do not skip intro on this one.

I agree. They deserve some kind of design award.

They are apparently real. A quick Google search reveals that they are listed as donors to the Republican party. Maybe they're fat and happy, with more clients than they know what to do with and they decided to have some fun. (At least thats what I hope...)
posted by vacapinta at 3:21 PM on April 13, 2002

I just did a whois, and it's registered to a Dr. Joe Alban, though that doesn't mean he's real. Did you see the pic of the doctors?

I love it. I wish all sites could be that cool.
posted by Salmonberry at 3:26 PM on April 13, 2002

Dr. Alban was/is a techno/rap artist
posted by riffola at 3:32 PM on April 13, 2002

"couple it with non-professional content not conducive to trusting the doctors"

Many studies and personal accounts indicate that we trust doctors altogether too much. So this is probably a truer indication of the sort of treatment patients might expect than most medical sites provide.

Of course, that means it's bad for business. But funny as hell, and we all know that hell is always good for a laugh.
posted by lucien at 3:58 PM on April 13, 2002

Well then, this all makes sense - only a republican techno/rap orthopaedic surgeon could need a site like that.
posted by Salmonberry at 3:58 PM on April 13, 2002

Fall out of a helicopter, deploy parachute, have parachute sliced by chopper, plummet to the pavement, get run over by a truck...somehow, I don't think they'll be able to put Humpty back together again, no matter HOW many orthopedic surgeons are on staff.

Maybe one of the doctor's sons switched his computer-design homework project with his father's website-designer's project for the office, a la the Brady Bunch episode when the blueprints are left at the amusement park...nah.
posted by davidmsc at 4:15 PM on April 13, 2002

When I was in high school, I had a really rich friend (who still owes me money), lived in a big house on the hillside. His father was a doctor, but in a very low income area. It was puzzling to me, until one time I was rear-ended in heavy traffic, and he said his dad could get me at least $8,000, guaranteed, with the whiplash defense.

Some Docs team up with ambulance-chaser-type attorneys. That's a possibility, here.
posted by planetkyoto at 4:22 PM on April 13, 2002

Hey anyone ever play the game stuntcopter on the first macintosh systems?? Was it originally on the 2600??
posted by Settle at 4:30 PM on April 13, 2002

I'm a couple of blocks off a major arterial that parallels the bottom of the west side of Queen Anne Hill here in Seattle. It's all warehouse, dry cleaners and self storage, mixed in with old beater houses way above grade along the hill side of the street--there's one old white house near here with a couple of signs in the yard...
#1:
THE HAPPY HAULER!
Clean Outs, Junk, Yard Waste, Debris--Have Truck, Will Haul.
#2:
WEB DESIGN

Same phone number for both, of course.

That's almost as funny as one I saw in Tacoma: Guns/Nails...
posted by y2karl at 4:46 PM on April 13, 2002

It sounds as if they sampled Sam Kinnison for the scream this little man emits as he falls.
posted by argybarg at 4:51 PM on April 13, 2002

They are for real. Looked up the phone number in 411.com white pages and found
ALBAN-WERTHEIMER ORTHOPEDIC
4290 KATELLA AVE
LOS ALAMITOS, CA
[phone]

Must be under construction. The Depositions, RX, make noise but nothing else. Must need the Atari.
posted by hockeyman at 5:25 PM on April 13, 2002

argybarg: I was thinking that exact same thing...

On an unrelated note, has anyone actually tried calling that number? I think that would probably settle the mystery...
posted by zztzed at 6:17 PM on April 13, 2002

You mean, step away from the computer and use something else? Gee, how come no one thought of that before?
posted by yhbc at 6:20 PM on April 13, 2002

has anyone actually tried calling that number?

Did that earlier today. Seems legit enough.
posted by epimorph at 6:31 PM on April 13, 2002

How did you find this site, Matt?
posted by iconomy at 6:47 PM on April 13, 2002

That helicopter looks like the helicopter from Airwolf for C64.
posted by animoller at 7:35 PM on April 13, 2002

There used to be these wonderful slow-motion computer animations of oil field accidents in commercials for a South Louisiana personal injury attorney. There were three different animations, but my favorite featured a huge pipe being dropped by a crane onto the deck of an offshore rig, only to roll over some guy's legs and drop him off into the gulf. They were humorous in an authentic "not trying to be funny" way. There was no sound so you were obliged to make the Ooof! sound yourself when the little faceless guy's legs buckled. These things happen, and you might need an attorney; but the cartooniness of it just made the whole thing comical. Another featured a Saigon-like chopper accident, with the chopper falling off the rig. Great stuff.

These guys are just being wacky on purpose.
posted by mblandi at 7:35 PM on April 13, 2002

I love the ST:TNG sounds the buttons make.
posted by donkeyschlong at 7:44 PM on April 13, 2002

That's what you want when you need surgery. Wacky.
posted by dong_resin at 8:41 PM on April 13, 2002

i love how the skip intro option dissapears after a couple of seconds..

"you had your choice in the beginning.. now you have to live with it.. FOREVAH!!!"
posted by lotsofno at 8:50 PM on April 13, 2002

When I was in keyboarding and we had those small, but very ugly and slow Macs, instead of raising my words-per-minute rate, I was increasing my Stuntcopter score. Fun stuff.
posted by Kevin Sanders at 9:01 PM on April 13, 2002

I've always wondered what the web would look like if it had been around in 1983. The intro was like a cross between a C64 and an Apple II game, Airwolf and Loadrunner or something. The guy is a real doctor for sure.
posted by euphorb at 9:30 PM on April 13, 2002

Not only is a he a kooky surgeon but he grows award-winning coffee under the name Konajoe and has a dolphin fetish.
posted by euphorb at 9:39 PM on April 13, 2002

Straight up riot. I can't wait to see it when it's done. Matt, are you going to let us in on how you found this?
posted by anathema at 10:10 PM on April 13, 2002

Choplifter, one of the rare games that started as a personal computer game and was later made into an arcade console (with much better graphics).
posted by kindall at 2:31 AM on April 14, 2002

how I found this: the link came up on a web design list, so maybe someone knows the person that created it. I have no idea how they found it.
posted by mathowie at 10:09 AM on April 14, 2002