Thanks to J. J. Abrams, Wired Becomes a Magazine With a Buried Puzzle

A few nights ago Steven Bevacqua, a postproduction supervisor for the television series “Life,” was flipping through the May issue of Wired magazine when he thought he started seeing secret messages. Yes, he’d just come home from a long day at work, but then again, the issue was guest-edited by J. J. Abrams, a creator of enigmatic television shows like “Lost” and “Fringe.” So, as Mr. Bevacqua wrote on his blog, he spent the next several days following the hidden clues he believed he’d found, using Morse code, alternative computer keyboard layouts and even electrician’s wiring codes to solve the covert brainteasers. Finally he was directed to a hidden Web site, from which he sent an e-mail message to a secret account. A short while later he learned that he was the first Wired reader to solve an extensive hidden puzzle embedded throughout the magazine. It all happened a little faster than the editors of Wired expected, but this was the intent of their new issue, created in collaboration with Mr. Abrams: to immerse their audience in a series of riddles — some announced, others not — that were buried just deep enough for the readers who wanted to dig them up. – from NYtimes