private byte[] encodeCharacter(Character value) {
    byte[] result = encodeInteger((int) value.charValue());
    result[0] = SPECIAL_CHARACTER;
    return result;
  }
Handles old whalin (tested with v1.6) encoding: data type is in the first
byte of the value.

@author bpartensky
@since Oct 16, 2008
src/main/java/net/spy/memcached/transcoders/WhalinV1Transcoder.java