Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesA programmer sits among cups of Asian noodles at a festival last month in Berlin. Allan Hoffman shows readers how they too can learn computer code.

That’s all that matters. Your description of what you want to do with a computer is pretty simplistic. Everything you listed is within the capabilities of a type of computer known as a Chromebook.

The old stereotype of a computer geek who’s always wearing a pocket protector and glasses with taped-together frames is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

The emerging portrait: Geeks are cool. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a cerebral hot spot, has run a "Charm School" for 19 years to hone its students' social and job-hunting skills and ...

Geeks can optionally choose to get get background checks, feature their college degrees, and show off any certifications they’ve earned from computer reapair schools.

Becoming mainstream also changes geek culture. Steve Wozniak, Job’s co-founder of Apple, was the ultimate early computer geek, tinkering in a garage to build the machine they envisioned.