That article makes for very interesting reading, as does this page regarding reading IR via the audio ports using LIRC http://www.lirc.org/ir-audio.html

Digging though my bits bin from my mythtv setup, I have a IR receiver spare from a hauppauge card and a transmitter module from a MCE remote module.

Think I might have a go at recording IR, and then seeing if I can transmit it by playing it back.

This will possibly need lirc porting and building for maemo - anybody up for it?