In Canada, the 60GB PS3 cost me $750 after taxes 4 months ago, and I barely use the thing. I've downloaded everything free or looks like it's worth paying for off of the PSN, I own Resistance, Carbon, and AC4 and don't play any of them anymore because none of them met my expectations (AC4 came real close and I'd still play it if it had better Multiplayer options and longer levels for the 1 player). I turn my PS3 on each day for about 5 minutes to check PSN and I really wish I'd gotten in on that Warhawk beta.
Don't get your hopes up about firmwares, btw. Sony was careful with PS3's BIOS, making sure that you can't load data from any executable source. Which is probably why they didn't add WMV playability to PS3, I remember one time I ran a WMV in Windows Media Player, it opened some web page at the same time.
As far as I know, the only ways to homebrew the PS3 up would be to either
1.
a) decompile the PS3 downloadable firmware data,
b) change code to allow data from memory sticks or a FW-accessible space on the HDD to appear under the "Game" section,
c) flash the firmware from inside Linux (somehow...)
2.
a) decompile the PS3 downloadable firmware data,
b) reverse engineer the firmware based on resources available to the firmware, and make it different enough to be able to claim that it the original firmware wasn't used,
c) flash the firmware from inside Linux (again, somehow...)
3. Risk bricking a few dozen PS3s by creating a Mod-chip that allows you to boot up from a seperate Linux-based firmware that can be run from either a flashable hard-space or a RAM space (both built in). RAM space would be used to develop and test the firmware, from which you then flash to your Mod-chip firmware upon successful non-brick-like action.
The first two options are illegal because decompiling the firmware and reverse engineering the firmware goes against intellectual property laws, and the last one would cost a lot of money (just to get done to your PS3, forget making the damn thing) and would risk your hardware if screwed up and would also void your warranty.
All sounds like fun hey? Don't expect homebrew or any pirating (bad, very bad!) on PS3 until the price comes down. And games are coming out at a rate of like 1 every 2 months or so? That's what it feels like anyhow.
I'm a big fan of Cell and Blu-ray, but I agree with the guy that said sell it.