Unicode

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,145089-page,1-c,technology/article.html#

We would not be able to get through our day without the little "magicians" working behind closed doors. Unicode defines a number for every letter in up to 30 languages so far. Think of it as the Rosetta Stone for computers. Most of us will never understand it but it is what is making computing on the internet what it is today...