well, ya, you would need to convert the resistors value into voltage and then use a analog to digital converter to send info to the computer.
but for resistors for a value up to 400k and with a small precision of 1-2K you can mesure it with the joistick port.
simple joysticks have 2 poteniometers wich the computer uses to determine the position. just put the resistor in place of the pot and you might read the value. you can use simple software like pascal do built a programm, i have something if you are intersted in this iddeea