I'm plowing through backlogged /. entries at bloglines and came across this funny entry about a strange bug in Excel 2007: 


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?"