Jonathan Coulton talks coding, Creative Commons and becoming an internet rockstar (video)

There are few ways of endearing yourself to the geek world more quickly than writing a song like "Code Monkey." The developer-friendly track was one of 52 released as part of Jonathan Coulton's year-long "Thing a Week" project and was later adopted as the theme song for a similarly-titled G4 program. The songwriter was just adhering to that old adage of "writing what you know," having worked as a full-time computer programmer prior to giving the music world a go -- though, as he readily admits, he still keeps it real by coding for his own site. We sat down with Coulton as part of this month's Engadget Show, discussing his midlife crisis-driven decision to quit his day job and the journey that the internet played in making him a star. We also discussed the musician's favorite tech, his love of Creative Commons and using gadgets to make music. Coulton also treated us to three songs, including "Still Alive" from the Portal soundtrack and two tracks off his brand new record Artificial Heart. Video of all that after the break.