I guess my first question would be: Exactly what do you mean by remote control?
If you mean controlling MJ from another machine, there's WebRemote and it's associated helpers. I don't use it myself.
If you mean controlling MJ from a handheld universal remote, there's plenty of options. The first thing to consider is the IR mechanism. The IR ports common on laptops will not accept signals from standard remote control devices. So, unless you're using a PDA that WILL communicate with the built in IR ports, you'll need something like
IRMan as the IR receiver. If all you're controlling is MJ, you don't need any other software (including the software that comes wi ththe IRMan). There's an MJ plug-in that handles the IRMan directly. All you need to do is teach it the remote buttons.
If you want to get a little more sophisticated and control other things besides MJ, there's
uICE. It allows you to send messages and keystrokes to applications and allows you to control the individual inputs of the sound mixer.
If you want the ultimate, look at
Girder. It's a little more complicated and a little harder to learn but you can't beat it for flexibility.
Finally, if you don't need to control MJ from across the room but just want to create a dedicated media keyboard, check out
Genovation's programmable keypads. I use the 35 key pad, Girder, and an
Irlinc transmitter to control MJ, my Sony DVD and TV, and RCA DSS system from one dedicated keypad.