There is one tool on iwebtool.com checks if you are banned or not. Though all this are just assumptions. You can also check google's cache and index, and just make your own conclusions from there
If you are in cache then it doesn't mean 100% that you are not ban. If you are ban then googlebot will not visit your site daily and hit on more than couple of pages. (imo)
seems like you're right: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=1024647 well, at least the examples shown in this thread are qute confusing