See XBMC Live, which is just as you describe (Ubuntu/XBMC) http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_Live without installing yourself. Apology if that's exactly what you meant.
Ditto, only on a HTPC I built myself. I tried Windows Media Center, for about a day, but couldn't stand it and went for the good old XBMC. And the remote control? A small, cheap, wireless mouse. Works wonders! A magnificient piece of software, XBMC.
Had it been me, I'd prefer to be shot into space. In a zillion years, there's a miniscule chance to be discovered by another species. In the at least, I'll eventually turn into stardust and become part of another cycle of magnificient mystery in the universe.
Isn't that thought more tantalizing than being buried on Earth?
Not sure, is there actually a cycle in the universe (don't know what the latest theory is).? I suppose if a body in space becomes stardust eventually, so will the whole earth. So either way you end up as stardust.
All the planets and stars that you see in the sky (and earth) where made from spacedust. So yes you would be part of the cycle of the universe, possibly even creating new life :)
Who knows, perhaps we were created from some dead aliens shot into space.
Probably random mutation that happened to turn out beneficial for us. In evolutionary sense, a larger brain doesn't seem to be of utmost importance for reproduction.
