Joseph Hebert wrote:
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"... maybe this discussion can sneak in under the WOT blanket."

Oh well, why not? :o)

"Actually, if my understanding is correct, DNA is also binary since C and G (?) must always pair and A and T (?) must always pair. In any case there are effectively only two base pairs, but billions of combinations, or maybe I'm wrong."

Close, but not quite there. In DNA, C does indeed pair with G and A pairs with T. These are called base pairs and they are the basis of heredity; if the two strands of a DNA molecule are separated, two new molecules, each identical to the original, will be formed by following the pairing rules.
However, the actual information, the sequence of amino acids that make a protein, is coded in triplets of base pairs, called codons. Since there are 4 kinds of bases, there are 64 possible codons.
Of these 64 codons, three code for 'stop'; they terminate the protein synthesis. The remaining 61 codons specify 20 different amino acids, so the code is redundant.

A more in-depth introduction can be found on Howstuffworks


Have an off-topic weekend :o)
Rob.