There is a joke for the digerati that goes: "There are 10 types of people... Those who know binary and those who don't." Some of you reading this may get a laugh out of that...well, at least a snicker. The key to understanding it is the concept of "binary."Binary refers to the number 2 and especially numerical systems that use "base 2." Our regular counting system is "base 10" and has ten digits (0–9). Base 2 uses only two digits (0 and 1). In base 2, writing "10" is the same as writing "2" in our regular base 10 system. Understanding binary is important for some people today because most computers, at their deepest levels, are binary. Microprocessors that run the computers