ASCII
ASCII character codes that I think will work for everybody. On many systems you can make these by holding down alt and then, using the number pad, typing the number of the character in question.
128 Ç 136 ê 144 É 152 ÿ 160 á 168 ¿
129 ü 137 ë 145 æ 153 Ö 161 í 169 ®
130 é 138 è 146 Æ 154 Ü 162 ó 170 ¬
131 â 139 ï 147 ô 155 ø 163 ú 171 ½
132 ä 140 î 148 ö 156 £ 164 ñ 172 ¼
133 à 141 ì 149 ò 157 Ø 165 Ñ 173 ¡
134 å 142 Ä 150 û 158 × 166 ª 174 «
135 ç 143 Å 151 ù 159 ƒ 167 º 175 »
In particular hoping that everyone sees 158 as a cross (the "times" symbol to Americans)--the mathematics section needs something like that for cartesian products.