Hacking your camera: Remote Trigger

I am still working on my panorama-rig with 10 cameras. To be frank, all the equipment is still sitting in the drawer collecting box with 1 opened camera and a soldering iron beside it.
Anyway, I found some "free" info on creating a remote trigger:
Wiley is publishing a book "Hacking Digital Cameras" (link). Check out the free pdf prevew chapter, it contains exactly what we are looking for !

Canon Camera Hack

I came across some websites with in-detail information about hacking Canon cameras. Not all, but some models allow changing the firmware in a temporary fashion, means it is non-destructive and reversible. Some pretty cool new functions you get out of an el-cheapo consumer cam. RAW, timelapse, scripting, to name a few.
Unfortunately I dont have one of the supported cameras and I fear if I buy one, it wont support because of a different firmware version.
Why is it interesting for us ? Because we can turn a camera with full-auto only into a manual camera ! (please note I am not 100% sure about this)

Links:
Lifehacker.com (link)
CHDK Wiki (link)

Closing Remark: This "hacking" function seems to be a support function backdoor that found its way into public. X-Files: Maybe it was leaked intentionally to make the camera more hip to the tech geeks ?