Researchers: Red players beat blue in online game

Researchers: Red players beat blue in online game

NEW YORK — It’s better to be on the red team than on the blue team in an online multiplayer shooting game, according to researchers.

The scientists studied the outcomes of 1,347 matchups between elite teams playing “Unreal Tournament 2004,” a so-called first-person shooter game. The main activity in the game is running around and shooting at the avatars of the opposing team.

As is the case with most team-based online shooting games, players of Unreal Tournament can choose to be on either the red team or the blue team, and their avatars wear those colors. But that choice is not as neutral as it seems: 55 percent of the time, the red team won, according to the study published in the journal Cyberpsychology Behavior.

Neuroscientist Mihai Moldovan of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark said the reason was most likely that the color red may act as a psychological distractor for men, possibly because men flush and turn red when they’re angry.

Web site offers insiders’ look at major employers

SAN FRANCISCO — Ever wonder whether you’d be better off working someplace else?

A new Web site called Glassdoor.com is trying to make it easier to find out by compiling free snapshots of the current salaries paid by hundreds of major employers, along with reviews anonymously written by current and past workers.

“We think it’s super important that people are able to find a job where they can go home happy at the end of the day,” said Robert Hohman, Glassdoor’s co-founder and chief executive.

The Sausalito-based startup’s other founders include Rich Barton, CEO of online home appraisal site Zillow.com.

By providing free access to sensitive salary information and sometimes blunt reviews of companies, Glassdoor is bound to upset some employers, predicted Jupiter Research analyst Barry Parr.

“I like the idea, but there is absolutely no question that some CEO is going to see something negative on the site and hit the roof,” Parr said. “It just makes me wonder how long it will take before they get sued.”

A Glassdoor feature that allows workers to rate their CEOs could be particularly provocative.

Sea-Tac airport uses video to ease parking rage

SEATTLE — A project to enable the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport garage to direct travelers to open spaces yielded an unusual solution — at least as far as parking garage technology goes.

Facing a tight budget, the Sea-Tac team found that the two most popular systems for counting vacant spaces were too expensive. At Portland International, for example, each parking space is equipped with an ultrasonic detector that knows if the space is occupied.

Albert Shen, the consultant who managed the technology retrofit for Sea-Tac, said Portland’s system would cost $1,100 per space, or $9.5 million for Sea-Tac’s 8,500 long-term parking spots.

The other widely used system relies on copper wires embedded in the floor to sense and count cars as they enter and leave. That system, used at Dallas-Fort Worth, was also too pricey.

So Sea-Tac, which is operated by the Port of Seattle, decided to design its own system based on software the port already used for surveillance and security. In less than 18 months, a software engineer and a small army of IT workers built what Shen says is the first video analysis-based space count system.

Specialty search engine dispenses how-to advice

SAN FRANCISCO — A new specialty search engine is trying to become the Internet’s go-to spot for finding how-to advice.

Founded by Rhode Island entrepreneur Ted Ives, FindHow Corp. has assembled an index spanning nearly about 30,000 Web pages with written, photographic and video instructions on a wide variety topics ranging from prosaic tasks like tying a tie to more exotic missions like inviting the Queen of England to a Super Bowl party.

Relying on a team of human editors, FindHow has sifted the information to discrete categories like “food and drink,” “careers and work” and “wild and wacky” and emphasizes tips from well-established government and business sources. Ives also is trying to market FindHow as a “family-friendly” site in hopes of attracting a loyal following among librarians and students.

Ives believes FindHow’s more organized format and emphasis on brands will help separate it from the horde of other Web sites that provide how-to information.

Associated Press