this topic caught my attention as well. If I had the skills I certainly would help, I did a little of coding in my past years but I can't imagine how hard it is to achieve a firmware modification on a camera. there are certain things that an older camera like the 40D would benfefit from, like the software is really old (auto-iso etc.) but the images are still awesome (I do prefer sometimes the 10MP sensor over smaller pixels) so, what canon wants us to do: buy a newer tool. with software so complicated to adjust on cameras its really a smart step of camera manufactures to keep them at dinousaur stage.
well, I assume you all agree, what I wanted to say: If there is a way I can help, I'll invest a lot of my free time (which I got like a month for this summer) If there is enough information available that someone like me could possibly read into that field of work.
best regards