title: MAC address to binary bits conversion
body: <p>I am trying to convert a mac address,  </p>
  
  <pre><code>mac = '00:de:34:ef:2e:f4'  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>into binary format. And the program i am using is,  </p>
  
  <pre><code>mac = '00:de:34:ef:2e:f4'
  r = mac.replace(':', '').decode('hex')  
  print r
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But i am getting a strange output when i run this program, and the output is  </p>
  
  <p>$Ã$  </p>
  
  <p>What am i doing wrong? </p>