> Can the boot sequence be set such that XP will load by default after some period of time?

Yes: edit your /etc/lilo.conf file and change the default=xxx entry to the same value which appears as label for your windows section. If there is no default line, just swap the windows and linux sections so that windows comes first.

> Also are there other versions on Linux that will mount and read windows NTFS automatically?

Erh...Knoppix reads NTFS just fine. V3.4 should come with the so-called captive-nfs alternate driver (it was on the CT edition) which allows writing as well.