$ bc <<< 'obase=2;1234'
April 12, 2012, 8 p.m. — openiduser43
<<< word is here-string syntax, a variant of here-documents.
<<< word
$ echo 'obase=2;1234' | bc
April 11, 2012, 11:20 p.m. — Janos
bc
obase
;
1234