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The jam style takes some getting used to, but is a far more satisfying way to play, and Guitar Hero or Rock Band enthusiasts will feel right at home, although depending on your keyboard it’s a little more cramped.

JamLegend is currently in private beta, although we’ve got 1,000 invites. To get yours, just go here. I’ve embedded a video of it in action below.

Unlike console rhythm games, you don’t actually see the other people strumming and missing notes. Instead it tracks their progress with a status bar that sits on the right of the display. You also get visual cues, like when they’ve surpassed you, or when you hit a big note streak. Afterward you can chat, talk smack, or start another round. There’s also a rematch button that lets you jump back into another session with the same crowd–it’s just brilliant.

Eventually users will be able to play more than just guitar. Also on the roadmap are bass, drums, and a keyboard, all of which will use the same general control method. In the meantime you can find the easy through hard difficulties for guitar on all 31 tracks.

In a time when most people spend eight hours a day (or more) with their fingers on a keyboard, a service called JamLegend wants you to spend a few more. It turns your average, everyday keyboard into a virtual electric guitar. Think of it as Guitar Hero, without the need for special hardware or software.

To play songs, you just hit the right note at the right time, which just like Guitar Hero or Rock Band requires holding the corresponding notes and strumming with the Enter key. The site suggests two ways to play–either a “chill” mode that looks like you’re typing into an Excel spreadsheet (good for playing at work) or the “jam” style where you hold your keyboard like a guitar and use the function keys like you would frets.

Note: this site is in private beta, although you can get an invite with the link at the bottom of the post.

To play a song with others, you can either pick to duel or do a showdown, which lets you play with more than a dozen others on the same track.

Of course playing with yourself is only fun for so long; part of the enjoyment is challenging others. To do this you simply set up “showdowns,” which can support up to 19 other people playing the song against you in real time. There’s also a duel mode, where you go one-on-one.

The real power of the site is in the collection of songs and the integrated social experience that lets you play with and against your friends. Unlike the console titles that limit you to a selection of licensed music from big-name bands, the songs on JamLegend are indie. That doesn’t mean they’re bad though; in fact most of the songs I played would be far more fun to play than some of the B-side tracks that fill out the set list on the console games.

JamLegend Trailer from JamLegend on Vimeo.

The service has an artist program that lets any musician get their tracks on for others to play. The team at JamLegend takes the track and adds the correct chords, complete with three different levels of difficulty that add more notes to the mix. According to founder Andrew Lee, this process takes about a week and a half to complete (per song), although it can go faster for “good tracks.” In return for their music, beneath each track the musician gets links to places where users can purchase their song including iTunes, CDbaby, and MySpace. Each song is also tracked for plays and member high scores.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

To keep users coming back, JamLegend uses an awards system that’s been ripped off the
Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero. You can gather more and more “groupies” by achieving certain feats, like hitting a 250-note streak, or scoring over certain point limits. There are also multiplayer achievements for beating others in competition. These points all add up to your special gamer score, which is stacked up on a leaderboard.

To play, you just hit the corresponding note at the right time. On the right it keeps track of your current score, high score, and the person who rocked it the most on that difficulty level.

In a rare independent study of China’s energy sector, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that the problem with China’s coal power generation is not that its power plants lack cleaner technology.

“The kinds of technology currently being adopted in China are not cheap,” lead researcher Edward S. Steinfeld said in the statement. “They’re not buying junk, and in some cases, the plants are employing state-of-the-art technology.”

The researchers gathered their own data instead of relying on Chinese government statistics, which can be unreliable. This may not sound like a big deal, but even large international organizations often, or even primarily, depend on government numbers.

Lower-grade coal, which produces high levels of sulfur emissions, can be obtained locally, whereas the highest-grade anthracite comes mostly from China’s northwest and must travel long distances to the plants, adding greatly to its cost.

The full report is available in PDF.

The emissions are definitely higher than they could be, the report found, but the culprit is usually low-quality coal rather than low-tech plants. As an MIT statement explains:

There could be room for improvement in technology, however. A pilot power plant capable of using carbon-capture technology opened in China in July, and widespread efforts on energy continue. But this MIT report underlines the challenge of cleaning up power generation when the fuel is dirtier than usual.

To be clear, the founders and CEOs of these companies had to work a bit for their money. Forty-three finalists were selected across six categories and put through a mini-business school course load on how to run a company, how to raise money, and how to get a product out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.

• Green Building Award: BottleStone

Here are the six categories and their respective winners:

• Air, Water & Waste Award: Over the Moon Diapers

• Transportation Award: ElectraDrive

The 3rd annual Clean Tech Open Awards Gala held Thursday evening in San Francisco honored the six winners who showed the most promise to launch a viable, clean energy solution. And yes, that prize is pretty sweet: $50,000 in cash and an additional $50,000 worth of business tools like legal and accounting services, public relations consulting, office space and other goodies that are considered part of the “start-up in a box” package.

• Smart Power Award: Power Assure

It’s pretty difficult to find free money these days. With the economy ailing and venture capital money as scare as a Republican sighting in Silicon Valley, it’s pretty remarkable that the Clean Tech Open is offering $100,000 prize packages to six clean-tech start-ups.

• Renewables Award: Focal Point Energy

• Energy Efficiency Award: Viridis Earth

I have some calls in on this and will let you know what I hear back.

Update at 9:05 a.m. PST: Microsoft recommends going directly to this link.

Microsoft’s Windows Web site will be the place to go to get the Windows 7 beta later on Friday. At the moment though, many users are encountering just error messages when they try to reach the site.

Update at 9:25 a.m. PST: All the sites appear to be working for me, though the beta still isn’t up, but should still go up later in the day, I am told.

Microsoft’s Bill Veghte said the company is aiming to have several million testers for the beta version. Microsoft has talked about having just a single beta of the product, followed by a release candidate version and then a final release. The company has been aiming to get it out this year, although Veghte said it could still come out either this year or early next year.

This was the message I got–”HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.” Is anyone out there getting through?

With so much energy and progress in the
mobile browser space these past two months (see here and here), you would expect the makers of the venerable Opera Mini browser to release an update that makes real progress on its free browser for Java phones.

The final addition is worth pointing out is wholly back-end. Opera has added a server park in the U.S. that will speed performance for Opera Mini in the U.S. and Asia. The extra servers will disperse the load of users demanding resources; they will also keep those requests more centralized to the source, rather than routing data through Norway and back.

(Credit:
Opera Software)

(Credit:
Opera Software)

Opera Mini’s video playback is the biggest news here. It’s in such high demand in the mobile world, it’s little wonder why Opera wanted to give users some ability to get to videos using Opera Mini as the conduit. The new system slaps on a patch, but still passes you off to your native browser or media player to play a video when you click the link.

Skins are reinstated in version 4.2.

The return of candy-colored skins is Opera’s final front-end change. Skinning was slashed after version 3 as Opera’s developers rewrote only the most essential code. The six skins–which you switch among by hitting Settings, then Appearance–include green, yellow, pink, silver, black, and a red not dissimilar to Opera Mini’s original hue.

Opera Link, rainbow skins

Competitor Skyfire’s in-browser video streaming is far from ideal, but it manages to keep users from taking their eyes off the application. Considering that Skyfire’s technology is similar to Opera Mini’s and that Skyfire just barely opened its beta, it’s a little disappointing that this bridge is all the mighty Opera can muster. Of course, Skyfire has a much smaller operation to maintain in terms of bandwidth costs and it’s not certain they can continue to offer video to all interested users. However, Skyfire has gained enough ground to make Opera’s added functionality look like a missed mark.

Opera reports that in Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones, for instance, Opera Mini will activate the media player when you click a video like YouTube. It will either close on its own and toss you back to Opera Mini, or you’ll shut down and be passed back to the browser.

In another tiny tweak, Opera Link gains the ability to sync notes to the Mini browser. The syncing feature shares up-to-date bookmarks and Speed Dial with any other Opera browser when you sign in. The minuscule addition makes you wonder why they didn’t go ahead and throw in the ability to sync history, too.

Nothing new here except the color.

Instead, on Tuesday, Norway-based Opera Software pushed a mini update (download) that tacks on one syncing function, an assortment of skins worthy of Apple’s iPod bonanza, and a wobbly kluge for introducing video playback.

In response, Mundie said that there has “always been a tension between advancing and maintaining capability with the past. Your wife should have easily been able to discover how to turn Vista off. But we are not there yet.”

“As we get this change in computational capability, we need to include these technologies to let the machine help you better,” he said.

Mundie’s comments underscore a primary concern for Microsoft, as cloud computing becomes more widespread: How does the company keep Windows relevant?

(Credit:
Dan Farber/CNET Networks)

Mundie referenced the “ribbon” feature of Office 2007, which was intended to make it easier to find the hundreds of features within Office. He also mentioned a product called Bob, “a more derided product” that Microsoft marketed in the 1990s as a way to help new users navigate Windows. It flopped, though the company did keep at least one Bob innovation–and much-despised feature–called “Clippy” as part of Word for some years later.

That’s a larger concern that Mundie, along with Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, will need to tackle with Microsoft’s evolving “client/cloud” strategy that posits operating systems will perform a vital role in local processing. Adobe Systems–which only recently launched a Web-based services–agrees. But Google and other competitors clearly see Web-based applications as driving future development.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Like others in the industry, Craig Mundie sees computing moving increasingly to the cloud. The big question is: what will be the “killer” applications driving demand?

Microsoft's Craig Mundie explains the company's client/cloud vision.

One conference attendee asked Mundie how Microsoft can bring broad technological advances, such as Mundie’s vision for what he calls “spatial computing,” down to a more human level and allow computing technology to better recognize human error and misunderstanding.

Still, Mundie acknowledged that most people “don’t choose Windows…they choose applications. It’s the killer apps people are choosing and that will be true in the next generation” of computing.

The attendee, a recent convert to Vista, said that his wife could not find a way to shut down the PC and had reverted to unplugging it from the wall. Couldn’t Vista have helped her?

Despite the far-reaching vision that Mundie discussed here, it’s the little things that still matter most to many Windows users.

“Whether it’s Windows or something else, something has to make all of this iron work. People say OS is irrelevant, (but) demands on the operating system are actually getting higher and higher,” Mundie said.

“With Bob,” he said, “we tried to create this product that would have a sidebar conversation with users to teach them how to do things. Clippy really wasn’t enough help. If we want to make things simple, the software is a lot harder.

Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, offered up the company’s vision for the next phase of computing at the EmTech conference here on Thursday. That vision includes an increasing reliance on cloud-based computing, robotics, and far-flung sensors. And, Mundie says, client-based operating systems.

“I think that will be true as we go forward with this new composite platform. People won’t really care what the iron is, or the underlying OS.”

(Credit:
Micron Technology)

At stake is Taiwan’s dynamic random access memory (DRAM) industry. DRAM is the main memory used in personal computers.

The winners (in relative terms since all companies are facing challenges) are companies such as South Korea-based Samsung and U.S.-based Micron Technology. Both Samsung and Micron are comparatively aggressive about moving to next-generation manufacturing process technologies to keep the cost per megabit of memory produced down.

Recent reports depict an industry desperately seeking financial help. The Taiwanese government has responded by offering loans, according to a variety of reports.

One report on Thursday said that Taiwan’s economic affairs ministry has approved a rescue package. No specifics have been revealed, however.

And why is this happening? “The Taiwan DRAM industry is falling further and further behind in terms of cost and in terms of production volumes. They have the worst cost basis,” Cohen said. “The guys that can produce DRAM on the newest equipment are the most competitive. And therefore can eke out a little profit. Everybody else loses money.”

(See also: Chip sales dip in October, flash sales dive.)

And the companies that lose money? Taiwan-based DRAM makers like Powerchip Semiconductor and ProMOS Technologies–which have been appealing to the government for immediate aid.

But rescuing the companies will not necessarily be a good thing for the market. “The overproduction that exists in DRAM and all of memory for that matter will likely continue. If you want this market to get some semblance of sanity and reasonableness, you may want to see players go out of business.”

Newest DDR3 DRAM memory module

Taiwan will likely rescue, in some form, failing memory chipmakers, as that country’s industry falls behind the rest of the world.

Avi Cohen, managing partner at Avian Securities, which covers memory chip market movements, says “it’s something (the government) will have to do if they want to keep all those people employed” at DRAM manufacturers in Taiwan.

Topics for discussion could include technology partnerships (for Twitter’s search engine), an advertising deal, or indeed acquisition. But is there a piece of paper on the table related to the latter? Hornik says the demarcation line between and early-stage and late-stage discussion for a partnership or acquisition is, roughly, the letter of intent, which illustrates the basic terms of any deal.

It’s also worth noting that the financial backers of Twitter, especially VC firm Benchmark Capital, are long-term investors, not likely interested in a quick exit–even for a $1 billion figure that’s been thrown around by armchair deal makers.

Last week, TechCrunch reported on rumors that Google was in “late-stage talks” to buy microblogging service Twitter.

Given the reported $230 million valuation of the company at its last funding round, a $1 billion exit would not actually generate the level or return that a patient VC would expect to see from a hot and growing company such as Twitter.

Kara Swisher responded to this post in her own blog, dousing the fire with sourced comments such as, “There was a discussion…about real-time search and about product stuff. It was a couple weeks ago. It was very preliminary.”

There is also no indication whatsoever that Twitter is in any hurry to sell. Unlike YouTube before the Google acquisition, Twitter has a lot of cash in the bank and minimal expenses. YouTube was staring at two oncoming trains–bandwidth expenses and legal challenges–that Twitter doesn’t have to worry about.

The question is not whether Google and Twitter are talking. They are. If they weren’t, it would be news in itself. Venture capitalist David Hornik, who’s been doing deals in Silicon Valley for nine years, says, “They’ll never not be talking. It’s neither in Twitter nor Google’s interest to not be talking.”

Still, it does look as if acquisition talks will have to start eventually. Although Twitter’s founders say they want to build an “independent” company, unless they dramatically increase the diversity of products offered by Twitter, or reveal both a revenue model that scales and a sustainable competitive barrier to it, I’d say the chances of staying single are slim. And with funding from VCs who expect a big return on their money–maybe not now, but definitely eventually–the company will likely, at some point, begin those “late stage” negotiations. But everything I’m reading and seeing points to acquisition talks being a bit of a way off.

Even with a letter of intent, most deals fall apart. No stories on the Twitter-Google topic mention anyone seeing a letter of intent, or even a basic deal structure. This leads me to believe that the talks are what are loosely called “early stage”–the kind of talking everyone has with everyone else.

Regardless, MySpace has been paying a lot of lip service to open standards recently, and it’s always good to see real developments.

It’s now available for download for all Flock users who have upgraded to Flock 2.0. For MySpace, which initially announced its support for OpenID back in July, this is also a push for Data Availability, a universal-login project that the social network announced in May but has since only rolled out with a few partners.

There’s a new OpenID extension for “social browser” Flock, and it was created with the help of password management service Vidoop and News Corp.-owned social network MySpace.

There are deeper reasons for MySpace being so vocal about OpenID support, though. The standard has seen its toughest rival yet in the form of Facebook Connect, a data-portability project which enjoyed a high-profile New York Times writeup this week and will reportedly be ready for a full debut very soon. (It’s already been implemented on a number of sites.)

The OpenID Flock extension allows for easier credential management within the browser and makes it more apparent when a site will accept an OpenID login. A handful of OpenID extensions already exist for the open-source Flock, but this one’s got the seal of approval from some big names.

Flock, unfortunately, isn’t an enormous player in the browser space. It has tons of bells and whistles, but is still well behind the likes of Internet Explorer and
Firefox in terms of downloads, and has newfound competition from Google’s Chrome.

Yahoo, one of MySpace’s launch partners for Data Availability, has also thrown its weight behind OpenID.

“As three companies dedicated to empowering users to easily share content and experiences, this was a very rewarding–and relatively fast–collaboration,” Max Engel, MySpace’s Data Availability product manager, said in a release. “Our goal was to eliminate some of the work involved in jumping between social experiences on the Web so that people can focus on their connections and the incredible content that’s out there. This Flock extension will give millions of people an easier way to expand their experiences and expression without boundaries.”