Two men, who both may have well have been named Arnold Snarb, were wandering around San Jose looking for a good time. Instead they stumbled on a deep puzzle embedded in the landscape. Specifically, four mysteriously changing, huge LED semaphores on an Adobe building in San Jose.

Mark Snesrud and Bob Mayo took on the public art challenge, leading them to W.A.S.T.E. cash on some fancy radios, find hidden XML files, use computer programs to generate a 4,142 page equation that explained the signals but signified nothing, and finally crack the code to find the building is continually broadcasting the text of Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49." (Are they paying royalties on this or just betting that Pynchon is too cool to sue?) The whole explanation of how they broke the code is in this 18-page document (in PDF form, of course)

THREAT LEVEL applauds the duo's fine sleuthing and their ability to pierce inverarity.

Now if only the duo can figure out who bid on Lot 49.

Learn more about Ben Rubin's San Jose Semaphore, The Merc News' Sal Pizarro San Jose Semaphore's message atop Adobe building is . . ., and all this via BoingBoing, naturally.