Sentence:  After all, this isn't PC Week, or another magazine that primarily covers the happenings of the PC world. This is Embedded Systems Programming, where we often program right down to the <WSD>bare metal</WSD> like Real Programmers, unlike those sissy PC guys (insert the sound of a hairy chest being thumped here). 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A runtime environment where little to no abstraction is available: usually employing a low-level programming language, without access to any operating system facilities, and interfacing hardware directly.