funny characters

[Toppinfo@xxxxxxx]

hi all stateside

anybody got an idea why:-

i open under zindoze   notepad


eh voila   there is  three little charcters  black filled squares
i can cut and copy   etc but if i delete them  save and reopen the file
they're back
so i look at it with  xedit under linux
it shows the follwing    -----    ^M
delte it it, then save and reopen    voila    gone!!!
   what is it ????? 
sorry if this question is a bit thick
but 7 yrs of windows  has made a blind man of me when it comes
to this sort of thing    thanx   
oh yeh    "we won the cup"