I've had a few pm's lately regards PS3 questions. It seems the large PS3 thread we have going, is so bloated & information is hard to find, that it's off putting to newer users who havn't kept up with developments.
So to somewhat alleviate this, I decided to start a new thread, that begins by summarizing how things stand so far with PS3 homebrew. There's really not much difference to how it all started, but sure if its more user friendly, we'll give it a go

PS3 Homebrew, as it stands today:
Firmware: For homebrew, ideally you need to be on no higher than 3.55. If your firmware is higher than 3.55 you'll need a hardware nand tool such as progskeet to downgrade it. This is tricky, & involves solder work, or the use of a clip on adapter which can be troublesome.
There is a recently released 3.56 CFW by Demonhades, which is developing along. This was only released for the people stuck on 3.56,
so if your on 3.55, it's advisable to stay on 3.55 as its the most complete platform for PS3 homebrew.
NEW: With the leak of the LV0 Keys, there is a new sleuth of CFW's in the wild. Rogero 4.30 & the Rebug offerings seem to be the most popular. All previous existing homebrew needs to be resigned to work on these new cfw's, which is easily done. Or you can just download an already resigned version & install it as you normally would.Nothing over 3.56 has any publically available homebrew method. When it becomes available, you will know.
CFW Installation: CFW is quite easy to install, & aside from installing it via the recovery menu, it's exactly the same as installing OFW via a memory stick. The process is seen
here
The original usb jig exploit is largely superseded by using CFW. The jig method came about when FW3.41 was current, & is largely incorporated into CFW3.55, where the payload is delivered automatically instead of a timed delivery via a usb dev board. For posterity purposes, that exploit is seen
herePSN: There is currently no known method of accessing PSN on a modified PS3. Since firmware 3.56, Sony have the ability to execute remote code on a PS3 attempting to log into PSN, this secures the system because they have additional checks in place now.PSN is now available again on CFW 4.xx - how long this will last is anyones guess, but as of 11/2012, it's working fine.
Well that's it in a very small nutshell,
if anyone has anything to add that changes the above please PM me, & I'll ammend or add it into this post. This way we can keep all the relevant info in the first post where its accessible, & not have to trawl through the thread like before. Only really important dev news though really, the thread can continue on as before otherwise
On with the show