"Geeks are nerds with social skills," says 24-year-old Russ Granger, a Santa Cruz musician, World Wide Web site designer and full-time geek known as Parade. "We're also the kind of people who can spend our entire workday in front of a computer and come home to relax--in front of a computer."

Granger's home, called the Marshmallow Peanut Circus for its similarity in hue to the bright orange candy, and the Think Tank are two of more than a dozen geek houses spread out across the Santa Cruz area. The four- or five-person houses are digital communes, inhabited primarily by former UC Santa Cruz students who remained here after landing jobs in town or over the hill in Silicon Valley.

In the geek houses, computer network cable is strung along the walls, Unix is spoken fluently and terminals hold the prestige spots in living rooms and bedrooms. On-line, the Internet-connected community is thriving: E-mail is exchanged at a furious pace, and a plethora of Santa Cruz-oriented chat rooms and forums are home to discussions about events in the city, politics, sex, music, art--and other geeks.