> As someone who lives nearby, Eastern TN as a whole strikes me as a horrible place for hackers or startups. The majority of local talent seems generally disinterested in moving to any languages or tools beyond those of the average enterprise (java, .net), or anything built/polished in the last 5 years.

Presumably these people are trying to change that. If Eastern TN sucks for hackers, and I have no reason to doubt you -- then it seems gratitude is called for rather than derision.