Rotating text by generating custom font files with pre-rotated characters and putting each character in a separate absolutely positioned div element is more "practical" than CSS transforms? I find that difficult to believe.
"Well. We're talking about making this work in quite a number of different browsers, including IE6. So yes, it is." --matthiaskramm
(please don't vote up my comment; instead, give Matthias the points: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1355880)