Slashdot reports that the “multiply” feature on Excel 2007 doesn’t work. (Seriously) A Slashdot commenter describes Microsoft’s response:
Microsoft already has a patch in the works to help users overcome this issue. Whenever the user types a ‘*’ in a formula, an animated sprite of Charles Babbage’s head will pop up. It will show this bubble caption:
“It looks like you’re trying to multiply two numbers. I can help show you how to use the Method of Finite Differences to find a good approximation of your answer using only addition and subtraction. Would you like me to bring up a wizard so that we can get started on finding an appropriate power series?”