You're a programmer working in a technology-driven economy. You work long hours, overtime is mandatory, and you spend evenings and weekends reading programming manuals. So when holiday time rolls around, how about joining a couple of hundred other people just like you on a Caribbean cruise - to talk computers.

If this sounds like a vision of heaven rather than hell, then Mr Neil Bauman - or Captain Neil, as he signs himself - is prepared to make you a very happy geek. Mr Bauman, operator of a venture called Geekcruises.com, is a purveyor of fine programming holidays to those whose motto in life is "I code, therefore I am".

Mr Bauman, a mid-40-something self-confessed geek, has lined up computer-oriented seven- to 10-day luxury cruises based around the unlikely topic of programming languages. The cruises bear whimsical titles such as Perl Whirl 2000, Java Jam, and XML Excursion; he's also planning a European Linux cruise in 2001.

Mr Bauman bills them as "high tech cruises for geeks and other computer professionals" - presumably to accommodate those who do not yet feel self-confident or proud enough to call themselves "geeks" just yet.

Unsurprisingly for someone willing to name their business Geekcruises.com, Mr Bauman is big on geek pride - and on convincing employers that they should award hard-working geek employees with, say, a Perl Whirl cruise to Alaska.

"I think geeks have always been looked down upon in the corporate world as the guys with thick glasses and pocket protectors," he says, himself the picture of contented geekiness, wearing a plaid shirt, worn corduroy trousers, bare feet - and thick glasses. Mr Bauman works from a home office in geekdom's fourstar city, Palo Alto, California.

"The geek should be recognised as not just some grunt who sits in a cubicle," he argues. "I think in some way, this elevates the stature of a geek! This," - he says with emphasis, gesturing at a row of Geekcruises.com brochures fanned on a sofa - "is clearly worthy of a geek."

More than 900 geeks apparently agree. They've all sent e-mails asking for more information, and Mr Bauman has sent out his glossy brochures in response. He says he receives eight to 10 e-mails a day, many from Europe, and points out some neatly stacked envelopes with address labels for Ireland, Britain, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and France among others.

Some 20 per cent of the 100 or so already signed up for his May Perl Whirl are Europeans. "They take their holiday time a little more seriously," he says.

For the hard-core geek, there's plenty to get serious about. Sessions on the various cruises include "Perl, XML and Really Big Data", "The History and Culture of Perl", "Tips of the Java Wizards", "Do You Really Need Schemas and DTDs?" and the highly-tempting "Making File Conversions Fun and a Way of Life". Speakers include programming gurus such as Joseph Hall, Randal Schwartz, Lincoln Stein and geek icon and inventor of Perl, Larry Wall.

Special events include a seminar for "our female Geek cruisers" on "Issues of Being a Woman in the Tech Biz", a pub crawl through the Alaskan port of Juneau, and something entitled "Rebuilding Post-Apocalyptic Civilisation with Perl".

Mr Bauman got the idea for Geekcruises.com after taking his family on a special Star Trek theme cruise to Alaska (Mr Bauman's walls are lined with shelves holding videos of Star Trek and its various spin-off programmes).

They loved Alaska and longed for a way to go back, Mr Baumann says, as he rhapsodises about its beauty and wildlife. Then, while at a meeting of a local chapter of Perl enthusiasts called the Perlmongers, "The idea just struck me right there, all at once. So I blurted out, `What do you think of a Perl cruise?'," he recalls. "Dead silence."

Then, one after another, the group's members agreed it might be a fine thing to do. Conveniently, the members included Perl authors such as Mr Hall, and, once several agreed in principle to the idea, others came on board - literally.

Mr Bauman booked space on a Holland-America cruiseliner, the same liner that handled the Trekkies cruise, and started advertising the trip at Perl conventions and in magazines.

"By that point, I had already built the website, and thought, hey, I have one cruise, why not other cruises," he says.

Thus was Geekcruises.com born and, along with it, a new job. "I wasn't even thinking of doing this full-time," admits Mr Bauman, but his wife had been offered a job with a California start-up company and the family was ready to move from the Philadelphia area to Silicon Valley.

Mr Bauman, a former programmer, was half-owner in a publishing company that produced computer-oriented magazines, but now runs Geekcruises.com full-time.

He thinks computer geeks will welcome the chance to holiday with like-minded people. "Most love reading computer manuals and O'Reilly books [a computer publisher] on weekends and on vacation. When I went on the Trek cruise, I brought Perl manuals," he confesses. "It isn't just work, it's a real passion. Also, everyone wants to take a cruise, but it can be very hard to find a motivation."

For those who might need help in convincing the boss that a cruise is a suitable learning environment for paid leave, Mr Bauman helpfully offers arguments in a special section of the Geekcruises.com website called "Convincing the Boss".

Along with those who will take the cruises for their own holidays, Mr Bauman thinks he can tap into the employer market by offering the perfect company perk. "Retaining geek talent is one of the biggest challenges," he says. A cruise - the gift, he says "of time" - is better than more options or another bonus to jaded and well-paid geeks. And anyway, he laughs, an employee enticed with a cruise "is not going to quit between now and the cruise. At least you have an indentured servant for a while".

He's quick to stress that there's plenty of relaxation time as well, especially in ports of call.

"While the geeky guy or gal gets to do their geeky thing, the family gets to do family things," he says. And the geeky guy or gal can even do the family thing. According to Captain Neil, two couples intend to get married during the cruise, and one couple will be celebrating a honeymoon - proving that even geeks can be distracted by something other than code.