[hughprime]

That sounds pretty good, actually. It's neither self-deprecating nor self-aggrandizing, and provides just enough information to satisfy the demands of the conversation if the person doesn't care about computer stuff, and enough to start a conversation if they do.

[AGorilla]

No, it's incredibly condescending and leaves no opening for further questioning. What sort of response could a non-technical person have to that question: "So uh... how's that going then?".

I can't believe that everyone here is so well versed in delivering the elevator pitch for their new iPhone Web 2.0 social scrapbooking app but can't describe what they do succinctly in a social context. Is it that hard to say "I write software for [insert type(s) of clients/employer] that [insert function of software]"? People have seen The Matrix, they know what a computer programmer is. If you say "I do computer stuff", you deserve to have them ask you to fix theirs because it's one of 3 possible ways to respond to that statement.