From the guidelines on what's topical: "Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups."

Given the amount of non-topical stuff that makes it to the front page ("Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.") I'd say this is more closely aligned with the interests of many HN readers.

> Is this a nerd culture site?

I'd say yes.