It'S a quirk of the internet age that straight after a dramatic event a web server crashes. It's known in techno circles as a flashcrowd: thousands, or even millions of people, hungry for information, hit a website.

Dr Lindsay Bradford (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) knows first-hand of the chaos of such an event. That's why he designed a software to try to stop it. He has a working prototype that entails running a web server, simulating the same load induced by a flashcrowd and feeding it new programming. The concept centres on making what are known as unrestricted changes to a piece of software while it is running. In other words, having software that programmers can adapt to unanticipated changes.

Find out more "Software to keep flashcrowds at bay" (The Australian Higher Education)

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