1. A method, comprising (a) providing a plurality of nucleic acid molecules, comprising individual nucleic acid types having a tag sequence, wherein the tag sequence comprises the sequence (N 1 ) n (N 2 ) n , wherein N 1 and N 2 are nucleotides that complement different nucleotides, respectively, wherein n is a non-zero integer that can differ for N 1 and N 2 , wherein the plurality of nucleic acid molecules comprises at least 48 different species of the sequence (N 1 ) n (N 2 ) n within the tag sequences of the plurality of nucleic acid molecules; (b) detecting the individual nucleic acids under conditions to distinguish signal intensities for (N 1 ) n sequences having different values for n and to distinguish signal intensities for (N 2 ) n sequences having different values for n; and (c) distinguishing the nucleic acid tags based on the signal intensities detected in step (b).