I've been wondering which distro would be best for using on an old laptop for remote automatic slideshow presentations.

I would like to use an old laptop that I could leave at my grandmother's who lives 1500 km away. She has zero computer skills. Would it be possible to install a Linux distro that is minimal and easy to setup and could do the following:

Project discription:

Revive old pentium laptop p233 as a remote slideshow automator

Objectives 1:

Auto boot at same time everyday (time is set in BIOS)
Auto dialup (from encrypted phone number)
Fetch fotos from remote PC over the phone line.
Close connection
Run Slide show until time for shut down (time is set in OS)

Objectives 2:
Start PC with phone call from abroad by remote PC
Transfer Photos and close connection
Run slideshow
Turn PC off at set time in OS
Start PC and repeat slide show everyday and shuts down automatically

Errors need to be repressed and need for user intervention to be zero. (Impossibly difficult with Windows).

I am an artist and my Linux skills are nil so I need something that is simple to setup and configure or if nothing exists I would be willing help a programmer rebuild a Linux distro for this purpose. My skills would be providing GUI design.