Disease Cube

March 5, 2003 2:32 PM

Disease Cube A rather extraordinary applet. Find out about the reportable communicable diseases in the US. Many hidden features.
posted by kablam (12 comments total)

Hey - how about a warning that it will try to download/install something? No thanks...
posted by davidmsc at 3:07 PM on March 5, 2003

Yeah, what he said. But I declined the download and it still seemed to load and work okay. Neat app. Would be cool if they open sourced it...
posted by Asparagirl at 3:29 PM on March 5, 2003

that's java - it's always downloaded. there's some signed stuff, with an expired certificate, but the program will work even if you don't accept the certificate (you just can't save info to disk, as far as i can tell).
in other words: if you don't accept the certificate then this is no more nasty than any other java applet.
posted by andrew cooke at 3:30 PM on March 5, 2003

A bit off topic, but you've seemed to inadvertently included your IP in the URL: http://www.storydata.com/.../CDCDiseaseData.html?hint=68.2.190.71-1013436412...

[tom@wintermute tom] host 68.2.190.71
71.190.2.68.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer ip68-2-190-71.ph.ph.cox.net.

Using Cox, eh? ; )
posted by thebabelfish at 4:06 PM on March 5, 2003

The hidden feature is it does nothing?
posted by rough ashlar at 4:30 PM on March 5, 2003

Well, Tom, though I made I slight error of posting an unclean URL, isn't it slightly worse to make a point of it? Now granted, you might be fascinated by other people's IP addresses, but it's sort of like posting "I know where you live! And I'm gonna tell everybody!"
If you don't like the link just say so.
posted by kablam at 5:27 PM on March 5, 2003

For any who'd like more information on reportable infectious diseases, here's the current list on the CDC site. If you're so inclined, you can track reports of these diseases.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 6:02 PM on March 5, 2003

If you don't think that Laurie Garrett is a clueless asswipe, you can read what she has to say about infectious diseases. She seems to me on a betrayal of trust kick.
posted by alms at 6:23 PM on March 5, 2003

Who knew Massachusetts had such a Pertussis problem?
posted by Tystnaden at 4:47 AM on March 6, 2003

Doesn't work in Mozilla....
posted by badstone at 9:50 AM on March 6, 2003

Works fine in Phoenix 0.5 Win2k SP3.
posted by Tystnaden at 10:12 AM on March 6, 2003

kablam: I didn't mean to offend you or intend to be childish by posting your IP. I just thought I'd point it out; I won't do it again. As for the link though, I thought it was great.
posted by thebabelfish at 5:40 PM on March 6, 2003