The Bench and the Byline
Every article on this blog passes two places before it goes live. The first is the bench: a cluttered desk, a borrowed laptop, a streaming box with a sticky remote, wherever a step can actually be tried. The second is the byline: the moment someone puts their pen name to the text and agrees to answer for it. This page is about both.
The bench
We are not a laboratory and we do not pretend to be one. The bench is simply our habit of doing the thing before describing it. If a guide says to open a menu, somebody opened it. If an article compares two ways of working, at least one of us has worked both ways for long enough to notice the difference.
Some topics cannot be tried at a desk, such as a mortgage, a property market abroad or the rules of a particular insurance product. For those we read the official material carefully, keep to general explanations and say clearly where your own situation needs a professional.
The byline
Four people write under pen names, and each looks after a few beats:
| Pen name | Looks after | Usually found |
|---|---|---|
| Radomir | Education and learning to code | Rewriting an example until a beginner could type it unaided |
| Aurelie | Apps, AI tools and social media marketing | Testing a free tier before anyone mentions the paid plan |
| Severin | Gadgets, entertainment and streaming | Behind a television, following a cable |
| Bettany | Business, property, travel and the final edit | Cutting the third adjective from a sentence |
None of us holds a title that would make our word final on law, finance or health, and we do not borrow one. The pen names exist so the writing can be judged on its own.
Rules every draft follows
- The headline question gets answered early. If a reader has to scroll past three paragraphs of scene-setting, the draft goes back.
- Show the trade-off. Most choices in tech have a cost on the other side; we name it.
- No made-up numbers. A figure that cannot be traced to a source is replaced by a description.
- Second reader. Bettany, or whoever did not write the piece, reads it before publication.
- Dated and revisable. When something changes, the article changes and the update date moves.
An example of the process
Our piece on mechanical and membrane keyboards went through the bench in the most literal sense: ordinary typing on both kinds of board before a word was drafted, then a second reader who asked why the section on noise sat so far down. It moved up.
Talk to the team
If you want to suggest a topic, question a claim or simply tell us a guide worked, the Send a Message page explains how to reach all four of us. Background on the blog as a whole is on About RCSI USA Tech Notes.
On pen names
Why we sign with first names only
Each of us writes under a pen name. It keeps the attention on the article and away from the person behind it, and it reminds us that the writing has to stand up without a title attached.
What we can promise is effort: the step tried before it is described, the claim checked before it is printed and the correction made as soon as we learn about it.
Radomir, Aurelie, Severin and Bettany
If it has not been tried on the bench, it does not get a byline.