Ah, the irritating "joys" of high tech.  In our house we have Shaw digital cable.  Today was the introduction of a new set of menues and so forth for the digital terminal used.  But, surprise! the new software is causing problems.  I could change channels and turn the cable box off, but otherwise nothing was working.  A phonecall to customer service has given me audio at least.  From what the service guy said they've been getting lots of calls today regarding similar problems.  Hopefully things will be completely operational soon and I won't have to call them again in the morning.