This here’s the alligator station putting the hammer down to help you ditch the boy scouts and have a smooth ride to Hot Town. In other words, it’s time to look at the topics Chris and I covered this week in TechStuff.

Monday’s episode was our second Listener Mail Roundup Jamboree. We answered three e-mails in this episode. The first topic was about what you should do if you suspect you’ve encountered an online fraud or scam. Even if you don’t fall for the trick yourself, it’s important to pass the information along to the authorities so that other people don’t become victims. Learn more in the podcast.

The next e-mail asked us to explain the difference between hardware, firmware and software. Hardware and software are fairly clear-cut terms. But firmware, that mysterious construct that exists somewhere between hardware and software, is a little more difficult to explain. But Chris and I give it the old college try and provide several examples of firmware throughout our discussion.