Dear Friends,
I was down in Rutland this week to participate in a panel discussion on the technology sector in Vermont and of course, to check on the progress of the construction for our new store. With big employers in our state such as GE and IBM, we have a pretty strong technology sector that has spawned hundreds of new businesses. This includes some amazing success stories such as Biotek, dealer.com and mywebgrocer.com, as well as software developers in all of the nooks and crannies of the state.
The biggest barrier that keeps Vermont from being more of a high-tech hub is the ongoing development of high speed broadband to all areas of the state. While some of the build-outs seem to look towards somewhat limiting technologies such as wireless, the most effective and only real solution to our rural and mountainous state is fiber optics. We are fortunate at Small Dog Electronics to have a forward-thinking local phone and internet company, Waitsfield Telecom, that has brought fiber to our headquarters a few years ago.
We will start moving furniture, equipment and furniture in to the Rutland store starting next week. We have been training our newest employees for the store and are really looking forward to the opening of that new location.
The sap buckets and pipelines are filling with sweet maple sap as the days are warm, and nights cool. All the predictions call for a banner year for maple syrup here in the maple syrup capital of the universe. Of course, this same weather makes for muddy back roads and cars that shimmy and shake as mud is caked on the wheels. Hammerhead likes to sit close on the bench seat of my pickup truck as we slog though the mud.
We have some fantastic bargains on Apple factory-reconditioned 17-inch MacBook Pros. As you know, the big daddy of the MacBook Pro line is no longer manufactured, but these units have been refurbished by Apple to new specifications and carry the same 1-year Apple warranty as a new Mac. Plus, they are eligible for the AppleCare Protection Plan that extends that warranty to 3 years and takes the free tech support from Apple from 90 days to 3 years. These 17-inch MacBook Pros start at $1099(!) and if you are looking for a bigger laptop Mac, this is the best opportunity yet!