OT: solution to PC systems problem??

[The Dark force of dance]

Y-ellow Y'all.
	I'm sure some people are going to find this off topic but there's a method
in my madness.

I need to find a way to share a mouse and keyboard between two computers.
They are mounted in my _Live_ rack and the second machine is, for the most
part, a turn-key system. I've successfully managed to switch the video
through one monitor. I used a pair of relays which can be remote controlled
from a switch at the terminal, (Mouse/monitor/keyboard) which is on a
single extension cable and can be located up to 1.8 metres from the rack it
self. But switching, or faking the keyboard and mouse is another matter
entirely. The keyboard and mouse talk back to the system.

The other thing I need to be able to do is power the systems down reliably
with out necessarily using a keyboard command. I don't know if there's some
kind of hardware or software hook I can use to do it. Ideally so that I can
give one command to shut down from one computer and they will both shut
down in sequence. Otherwise if I just shut the first one down, the second
one will get killed in the processes.

If anyone has any clues on where I might find information on this stuff I
would really appreciate it. I'm after the simplest solution. One that won't
take me weeks of R&D to perfect.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Be absolutely Icebox.

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