[ripter]

I agree. The definition of nerd is: "a foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious."

[ceejayoz]

There's a well-established secondary definition along the lines of "a person who is very interested in technical subjects, computers, etc." as Merriam-Webster puts it.

[Raphmedia]

Yes, but so does "technical expert", "computer scientist", "independent researcher" with the exception that those are not associated with bullying and stereotypes.