I sincerely apologize if this is old news to ya'll, but I found this on the web and thought someone else besides me might benefit from this.
What I have found was a site that sells a small Infra-red receiver (
http://www.evation.com/irman/index.html) to make it possible to communicate between most any remote control and your PC. It seems to connect to your computer via a COM Port and with the correct software (http://www.mediatexx.com/index.htm) you can control anything you like on your computer. the site gives examples such as volume/treble/bass control, startup/controlling of programs, and shut down/hibernate of the computer. Another good thing is that it claims to work with 95, NT, 98, 2000, Me, & XP which makes it a very versatile program. Obviously there is not near the gratification you receive from making something such as this yourself, but it sure comes in handy if you are as lazy as me. Good luck to everyone