Trader Vic’s in Palo Alto, Calif., a significant producer of porcine animal fat, was the obvious choice of venue for The VC Taskforce and the hosting of a recent panel on Next-Generation biofuels. Next-Generation biofuels, depending on who’s doing the defining, includes cellulosic ethanol, synthetic genomics for bug manipulation, algae fuels and the like. These sectors have received billions in VC and PE funding in preparation for the emergence of this zero billion dollar market.  Here are some quotes from the event: “This business is about energy density," said Michael Burnside, President and CEO of Catchlight Energy, a very large joint venture between Chevron and Weyerhauser, adding that: "But 50 to 100 miles is the maximum you can transport bio-feedstocks and still be viable," and “Biofuels remain capital intensive at $5 to $7 per annual gallon versus ~$1.25 per annual gallon for petro-fuel refineries.� Neal Gutterson, President and CEO of Mendel Biotechnology, a man with 26 years in the ag-biotech industry had this to say: “Corn has been beaten up in the last few years, perhaps deservedly. We need to minimize the impact in biodiversity.� Mendel is a 12-year-old firm, involved in the sequencing of the first plant genome. “We see Miscanthus as the best perennial crop, Sorghum as the best annual crop. Think about the sheer acreage -- we need hundreds of millions of acres globally to meet our transportation needs. Our primary partner is BP and their goal is to have a global presence in biofuels,� Gutterson said. “The great thing about perennials, they minimize inputs like pesticides and nutrient requirements,� he said. “The role for small startups is a challenge. How does a startup work with BP or Chevron?  The large chemical, fuel and chemical companies must be involved,� Gutterson said. Jim Mullen, Partner at Morrison & Foerster, is a patent attorney in biotech.  Here’s his take with regards to the state of the art in algae: “A dose of reality is important. While there is algae cultivation for nutritional and pharmaceuticals -- algae as a source for commercial fuel is still five to 10 years away,� he said, adding that: “You willl not be putting algae products into your gas tank anytime soon.  A lot of R&D -- more 'R' than 'D' -- has to be done.� Jim Embler, CEO of ZeaChem and recovering engineer testified to the value of bio-feedstocks said: “A few years ago McDonalds paid you to remove their food waste, recently companies are paying McDonalds for their waste, and a few weeks ago -- there was news that organized crime is now stealing the grease.� “Third-generation biofuels have to be non-food,� Embler also said. At the conclusion of the panel, we lit tiki torches, I played  Don Ho tunes on the ukelele, and we drank rum drinks from hollow pineapples.

Applied Materials says its expects to generate $1.33 billion for its first fiscal quarter, down 35 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which makes machines for producing solar cells and integrated circuits, isn’t due to release its earnings on Feb. 10. But it released some numbers Monday to let investors know the picture won't be pretty.

Applied expects to record a net loss of 9 cents per share to 11 cents per share for the quarter ending Jan. 25. The company  didn’t anticipate posting a loss -- the previous guidance, issued in November, called for zero to 4 cents per share.

The earnings were hit by a restructuring charge of about $133 million, or 6 cents per share, from implementing cost-cutting plans. The plans included gutting 12 percent of its global workforce. Because some customers weren’t able to pay on time, the company included a charge of $48 million, or 2 cents per share, in the earnings. Applied also counted $20 million, or 1 cent per share, in inventory charges as a result of a lower demand for its semiconductor and display equipment.

Applied didn’t break down the numbers by divisions, so it’s unlear how its solar division has been affected by the economic downturn since it last reported earnings in November.

Nichia, one of the big names in LEDs, and Luminus Devices have signed a cross-licensing and manufacturing agreement to help bring white light LEDs to market. It's a big-deal announcement. Nichia has manufacturing might and an extensive sales channel while Luminus has one of the more unusual LEDs out there with its PhlatLight. Rather than make small LEDs that might measure 1 millimeter a side and take up a little more than a square millimeter in area, the company makes devices like its PT120 that can sport 12 square millimeters of light emitting surface (that’s 4.6 x 2.6 millimeters). A larger LED means that fewer LEDs are needed to produce a lamp, which in turns leads to higher efficiencies. In other words, it's sort of a reverse Moore's Law. Under the deal, both companies will sell PhlatLights. The first output is due later this year. The race to bring LEDs to street lights and buildings is on. Last week, Bridgelux showed off its LED Arrays which it says drastically cut the cost of using LEDs in place of lightbulbs. The trick? It figured out a way to put several, rather than just one, LED under a lens. Fewer components mean lower costs. Cree, meanwhile, has been signing deals with several cities -- Anchorage, Beijing, Toronto -- to replace street lights with its LEDs. Lighting consumes 22 percent of the electricity in the U.S. -- don't you forget it -- and traditional lights are incredibly energy efficient. The incandescent bulb only uses about 5 percent of the energy put into it into light. The rest is converted to heat. Invented in 1879, the traditional bulb is one of the last vestiges of vacuum tube technology. The deal also unites the oldest and one of the newest names in white light LEDs. Nichia engineer Shuji Nakamura invented the blue LED while at NIchia during the '90s. If you cover a blue LED with a yellow phosphor you get white light. Later, Nakamura did the unthinkable in Japan: He sued his employer for shorting him financially for the invention. He ultimately settled for millions and became a folk hero to salarymen in Japan. Nakamura is now a professor at the University of California Santa Barbara and is behind two Khosla Venture-backed startups: Soraa and Kaai. Luminus, which grew out of MIT, has raised $139 million so far.

One of the greatest things about the high-tech revolution is how its unleashed the inner bonehead in people. Today's case in point: Patri Friedman of the Seasteading Institute. The ex-Googler wants to build cities on the high seas to escape the pernicious influence of government. It's a Libertarian experiment. "We don't have a frontier anymore. The reason our political system doesn't innovate anymore is that there's no place to try out new things. We want to provide that place," he told News.com. Brave talk like this is always great, particularly when it comes from a guy whose whole career is bound up in a technological achievement (the Internet) funded by an ossified political system he's carping about. Granted, we don't have much of a frontier anymore. We paved it over and gave the early inhabitants smallpox a long time ago. But is that so bad? We live in an area where we have to understand the limits of resource exploitation. We could continue to do that in Brazil, but it would be frowned on and cause ecological damage. An experiment like this could work, but only if you limited citizenship to the audience of "This American Life" or the members of They Might Be Giants. The first criminals with guns that pop up and the term Libertarian Utopia takes on a different hue. And ecologically, would it be a disaster? It depends. "Some rogue seasteads are, sadly, likely to pollute. But most of the technologies seasteaders use will be much less polluting than what is used on land. Also, resources will be more expensive, which means seasteaders will use less of them, so the net result may well be a reduction in footprint. And it’s not like seasteads are completely unaccountable -- we see pollution as one of the areas most likely to provoke interference from traditional nations," the statement said. There's the upside: The organization is at least giving us an invitation to invade.