Sony should announce that they will commit to do the following within 6 months:

• bring back OtherOS support
• make a full PS3 Linux distro available (Ubuntu would be preferred over, uh, Yellowdog)
• provide OtherOS access to hardware previously denied, such as video and graphics accelleration chips. Preferably with some open source hardware accellerated drivers.
• expand the PS3 firmware's audio and video codec support, and make it become a general media player

and then ask the hackers not to release the code and tools (and possibly provide additional incentives to sign an NDA).
I mean, by publicly conceding their accomplishment and and by giving the public back what they took away previously, it becomes harder to argue that the cracking tools need to be released. Of course the whole message needs to be calibrated just so it won't appear as giving in to blackmail. It will give them and game developers more time to reap the cost of developing the PS3 and games.

I seem to remember that one of the reasons why Sony allowed Yellow Dog Linux was to be able to classify as a computer in the EU, thus avoiding some taxes in some EU states.

Agreed. It reminds me of the early USB 1.0 standard which wasn't specific and precice enough to avoid vendors creating multiple, partially incompatible versions. The problem is: the spec allows for multiple interpretations, and Microsoft can see the opportunity to corrupt a competing standard here. "Hey, we DID implement the standard like you demanded. If documents aren't interoperable with the competition, then it is a poor standard. You'd better stay with OUR document format, then."

Sorry, forgot to link to the presentation I mentioned: Hans Rosling: Debunking Third World Myths

Professor Hans Rosling used an impressive tool to visualize data from UN and other sources to debunk myths about the third world. I don't know what the tool is called, whether it is available, open source or what not. I got the impression from the presentation that it was specially written for the task. No idea if the data sets qualify as complex, but if I had to visualize data I'd certainly check out if this tool is available.

Even if the hardware turns out to be superior, that doesn't translate into success. For this thing to succeed, it needs lots of users buying it and lots of top-notch games requiring it or at least using its features. Bundling it with one game isn't going to cut it. Why do we hear about this this way, instead of Sony announcing future PS3's will feature these controllers (and current PS3's will work with them) ?

Yes, IPX/SPX was ok and with its broadcast mechanism easier to use - no need for DHCP servers and manual router configurations. The problem I had with Novell was with their use of the Ethernet_802.3 ethernet framing. The idiots grabbed and implemented the draft spec too early and ended up with their own implementation, one WITHOUT the 802.2 header. Result? The only protocol you could use was IPX/SPX because there was no protocol ID field. Idiots! Anyway, I do remember we struggled with router tables filling up from all the SAP broadcasts in our 400+ server environment.. Obviously with 1-minute interval broadcasts, things weren't as scalable...

There used to be PostPath, which also has 100% compatible, drop-in, reverse-engineered Exchange protocol support. Cisco decided to buy that company, as part of their overall 'presence' strategy. Like they just now announced they will aquire Jabber.