Taiwan's Acer has been on a tear recently. It markets the eMachines, Acer and Gateway computer brands and overtook Dell Inc. (DELL) recently to become the second-largest computer seller in the world. It may not be the most innovative, but it is selling a large amount of PCs every quarter. Its presence is large in the U.S. retail sector, where Dell's efforts over the last 18 months are still not where they need to be.

Now that Acer Chairman J.T. Wang wants to see Apple's (AAPL) new iPad tablet computer, one has to wonder why Acer cares at all. Although Amazon, Inc. (AMZN) already has the Kindle e-reader device (and ready to unveil a third-generation product to compete with Apple), Acer's Chairman may not realize that Apple is not wanting to compete as a tablet PC manufacturer.

While the entire world was wrapped up in the hype of the Apple (AAPL) iPad launch Wednesday, many tech enthusiasts, bloggers and uber-geeks -- the kind who hang on anything Steve Jobs belches out -- came away mostly underwhelmed and disappointed.

Apple, after knocking the middle ground between laptop and smartphone, unveiled a product that, well doesn't really have any of the best qualities of both. So, the iPad may go down as one of the biggest launch letdowns in Apple's recent history. It's already being called a larger iPod touch with an e-book reader attached. Not flattering, Apple.

Google (GOOG) has been kind of harsh with its Chinese web presence recently (with good reason), and now the world's largest information company (like that?) may not want to see two new smartphones that feature its Android operating system released in China. Why? Because the future of anything-Google in China is in jeopardy at the moment. In other words, Google's "do no evil" motto is finally catching up to it in the world's largest country by population -- but also one of the most repressed as its economy continues expanding.

Now here's a stroke of genius! Notice we use an exclamation point for emphasis. We have a period, a colon, a semicolon, a question mark, but no punctuation mark to indicate sarcasm.

Enter Sarcasm Inc. What does Sarcasm Inc. do? For $1.99 the company will sell you their software that includes their special punctuation symbol for sarcasm. The software is compatible with most existing software, such as Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG).

The company also sells T-shirts, mugs and mouse pads. They also have their own newsletter.

So now when you are being sarcastic, you won't need to use a "ha ha" or other words to describe your feelings. You just hit the sarcasm symbol and the receiver knows instantly what you are thinking, whether its nice of not.

Would you buy this software for $1.99?

China wants to join the international trading club. Regulators approved "in principle" the trading tools of stock index futures, short selling and margin trading. These trading practices have long been used in London, New York and most international trading exchanges.

It will take about three months for the new changes to take effect. Meanwhile,stocks of major Chinese brokerage houses were bid higher in anticipation that they will be making margin loans to investors.

The Copenhagen Accord sets targets for reducing greenhouse gases worldwide. President Obama, arfter meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma, formally announced that an agreement had been struck. Some of the specifics include:

• The developed countries will commit to providing $100 billion a year by 2020 "to address the needs of developing countries." The amount is needed to provide a truly global effort at reducing greenhouse gases.
• The countries recognize the vital role of reducing deforestation, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gases.