Pi supports hdmi cec, all Samsung and Sony tvs support the same, it means that tv remote can control pi via hdmi, no need of adding extra sensors.
The thing even works on raspbian!
I've used a cat 6 cable and rewired it since the other cable was giving too much attenuation. If possible lay your cable about 2cm away from any other cable from the distribution box. My signal strength went from 9% to 100%. Cable management is the key.
I've seen the hp 15-ab series laptop in person, it's pretty good, good battery life, awesome sound, stays cooler, it's design is also similar to hp envy unlike the older hp pavilions. Get a variant without os, hp loads a lot of malware.
it's hidden not lost, open it in lunux and you'll be able to view the entire content of the pen drive , i don't remember exactly but you can make the data visible again by changing its properties using the cmd parameter -r. Google a little more on it, you'll find the solution.
I would also...