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ouch... reminds me of dell's earning reports

Kinda reminds me of Intel's FPU fiasco back a few years ago.

Excel equation:
Vista > excellent

Correct equation:
Vista < excrement

heh heh, remember the little program "Intel Calc" (I think it was called) It gave a wrong answer to any equation. Well, it seems Excel is going retro.

Microsoft: losing trust daily...

So that's how they calculated the Zune and Vista market share that they keep referring too...

Funny Thank you MBU!

lol @ Jeff!

This is actually pretty scary, considering how many businesses use Excel 2007 for their accounting....

Apple's not quite immune to calculation errors. Open the Calculator app and set it to RPN mode, and hit "C" to clear it. Enter a non-integer value (e.g., 3.1416) and click Enter, then click 0 then +. The correct answer should be 3.1416, but instead, Calculator rounds down to 3. Try the same thing, but add 0.00 and you get 3.14. So, when adding receipts in RPN mode, be sure to enter whole dollar amounts with .00 at the end.

Microsoft's Office:mac 2004 gets the correct answer too. Move along quietly. No news here.

Careful there, MDN - Office 2008 for Mac isn't a released product yet. Better to compare it to the currently shipping Office 2004, lest you be castigated for what you yourselves have castigated others for doing on this very site.

This is why we don't calculate Bill Gates taxes on anything using his software.

WE KNOW

BTW anyone using OfficeMac is most likely a terrorist and needs to be shot while picking the software off the shelf. Because just by touching any M$ software means you intend to do your country harm.

Incredible, MS has really bad configuration management. Excel 2003, same test and every calculation correct. Why would a company take working code and touch it?

This is the new Math.

Your potential, our math.

Imagine building you home using calculations from a Microsoft program..
Those bridges in USA that fell down, did they were build using microsoft programs? The twin towers? What else is falling down and the owners are blaming the architects?

Uh, NewsBreaker, there's a difference between rounding errors (number of significant digits to display) and something like this. At the very least--even if you want to consider it a bug--there's a work-around (enter the appropriate number of significant digits).

The work-around for Excel? Don't do a multiply that results in 65,535 anywhere in the equation! For example, (850 * 77.1) + 1 will give you 100,001.

Much bigger deal.

Wow...this is kinda like having a vasectomy.
You can screw everyone in sight
and still not multiply.

Great take MDN!

@BuriedCaesar

You're not seeing the forest for the trees. The point here is that this is just another example of the lack of quality control at Microsoft.

Nice one TT

Zune Tang. Now I know you're an impostor and NOT a real Microsoft Apologist.

And I thought Macadays take really sums it al up...
"Microsoft: losing trust daily..."
Classic...

Should be carved in bronze and mounted above the office doors of IT techs throughout the world...

@NewsBreaker

Apple's Calculator is displaying the proper precision based on the data you have entered.

@Jay-Z - Thanks for the eyesight check - I can see quite clearly not only the forest and the trees, but the oceans in between. I think it may be you who's only seeing the one tree (this post and resultant comment) in the forest that was my comment about MDN's current and past commenting practices, not just on this story, but in many others in the past.

So I'll ask more pointedly - why can't MDN be held to their own standard of prior conduct or at least be consistent in how they apply that standard? Remember what happened when the M$ shills came out saying that Vista was so much better than Tiger, even before it was released? MDN (rightly) tore them a new one for trying to compare an existing product (Tiger) to a yet-to-be-released OS. Why should it be any different when MDN tries the same tactic?

Apple must have used Excel calculate the original price for the iPhone.

Thanks, W. J.

Before you say Excel 2004 is free of this problem, look at what happens when you try: =HEC2DEC(DEC2HEX(850*77.1))

The error (in some form) crops up there, too. I was in on beta testing Excel 2000 for the Mac - there are lots of known bugs that were never fixed. And won't ever be fixed. Look at how Excel handles "=-A1^2" when there's a negative value in A1. They've had this one wrong from the beginning and won't change it since it would break all the spreadsheets out there that expect the wrong answer.

Also the statistical distribution routines are pretty bad. Two statisticians on the same beta team offered correct code, but MS turned them down.

MW: alone: as in "M$ stand alone -- with lots of egg on face." Again.

Yet another reason to stay with iWork08!

Office isnt just overpriced its now a broken suite.

Shit programing as usual from Redmond, probably take 5 years to sort the bug out just like they did with Vista.

Glad I use iWork and dont need that M$ crap bloatware.

@ Petey the Internet Bigwig
Glad I use iWork and dont need that M$ crap bloatware.

Wow Petey, if a real important man like you (a multi millionaire owner of a real BIG important company) has switched to iWork, I know that the 95% of the corporate world who use office will soon switch!!!!!!!

Thanks for your post Buddy. Run and wash your face now, mommy said dinner is almost ready!

Am I missing something here?

MDN is referring NOT to Office 2008 for the Mac (not shipping yet), but to Office 2007 for Windows-- which most certainly IS!

Get it? Office 2007 FOR WINDOWS is screwed up! It IS a shipping product! It is NOT in beta!

There is no Office 2007 for Mac! MDN is correct!

Or, again, am I missing your point here?

Thanks, @Buried Caesar. Thought I was the only one confused by BC's stance.

Imagine building you home using calculations from a Microsoft program..Those bridges in USA that fell down, did they were build using microsoft programs? The twin towers? What else is falling down and the owners are blaming the architects?

Seriously, are you older than Windows 98?

The WTC Twin Towers and the Minneapolis bridge were designed and built firmly in the SLIDE RULE era. Both predate Apple and MS. If electronic assistance was used in the engineering, it was primitive.

Perhaps we could look for a faulty mechanical adding machine or something. The kind were bugs were literally... bugs!

But then again, a bad workman always blames his fools...

Correct Buried Caesar, Office 2007 is the current Windows version featuring the butt-ugly 'ribbon' interface.

It is a shipping product and costs a small fortune.

And it's crap.

Seems like Buried Ceasar buried Buried Ceasar himself...

I just wish that Numbers could add time, as in 10:15 + 10:20 = 20:35. Excel has no problem doing this, but numbers chokes... Maybe there is a way... but I haven't found it, and neither has anyone else on the Apple discussion boards. If anyone knows a quick easy way to do this, please let me know... If your way involves a workaround that involves a long convoluted formula, then nevermind, I'll stick with Excel. I love numbers except for that one bug.

Welll, at least it all makes sense now.
Must be the same appllication Micro$oft uses to add up their Zune and Vista sales figures.

I'm not talking about the story - go back to the top of the page and LOOK at the last TAKE made by MDN - they clearly and quite directly reference Office 2008 for Mac, not the 2007 for PC version, and Office 2008 for the Mac is NOT available yet. That is the only bone I'm picking here, and it's a pretty large one. Ya'll need to read more carefully. And, contrary to reports, I'm not dead.

@numbers
I have a workaround to add time, but it's a big ol' pain in the butt. You use hours, minutes, seconds to extract each element, then add each itself (in 3 separate columns) then add them all back together again.

This is what I used to do WAY back when, when we used programs like Excel 1.0. There's no excuse for Numbers not to have this feature--and I told Apple so in the feedback form. I hope everyone else does to so they fix this really lame problem!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

THE TRUTH!

I have to give it to the my pet iTards down in the Mac Business Unit, they can do a lot with a little! I personally never go over there, but as I was browsing the web I ran across the preview of MacOff'08 that they have been feverishly laboring over, day and night for the past 3 years and WOW! Anyone unfortunate enough to have a Mac as their primary computer would be crazy not to buy this, it is definitely the most sophisticated and beautiful software ever to come out of Microsoft for any platform! I was impressed! This thing looks twice as good as the Vista version and can do even more!

Too Bad!

You see we only develop Mac Office for one reason; to use as a weapon against Apple!
Lately they have been misbehaving: releasing iPhones, new iPods, iWork, new iMacs, getting all of the good press, stock has tripled, ... etc
Why in the world should we release something like this when they have been embarrassing us and our other products? NO WAY HOSEA!

MacBU, prepare for another "quality assurance" delay to the Feburary release date. lol ...

it's good to be CEO!

NeoOffice gives the correct answers.

It is amazing how MS can screw up in such a way.

Key meme to send out to the market: EXCEL 2007 IS NOT RELIABLE FOR BUSINESS.

The link is dead.

"Sorry, we can't find the page you are looking for. It's probably our fault, but please check the URL and try again, or browse through the categories on the left.

If all else fails, try searching the blog by using the search box that's directly abov"

Yup - original link is dead, and has now been replaced with this one:
http://www.appscout.com/2007/09/microsoft_to_swat_excel_bug.php

And this one - http://www.appscout.com/2007/09/excel_will_learn_to_multiply.php

Here's the full text:

I reported earlier today that Excel Can't Multiply. Specifically, Excel 2007 gives the wrong answer when multiplying many pairs of numbers whose product should be 65,535. Microsoft is now aware of the problem, and had this to say about it:

"Microsoft recently learned of the flaw in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 that affects some calculations where the product should equal 65,535. We are currently in the process of developing and testing a fix for the flaw. Microsoft places a high priority on quickly responding to customer feedback and we are committed to finding ways to provide a better software experience. "

I'll keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Then again, the original story wasn't replaced, the link was just modified:

http://www.appscout.com/2007/09/excel_cant_multiply_1.php

Still doesn't alter the fact that MDN made a poor choice when it came to comparing a non-shipping product (Office 2008 Mac) to a shipping one (iWork '08) in their Take...

my excel did the math correctly...?