Unless I'm mistaken, none of his suggestions use OS passwords. All of his suggestions protect against plugging the hard drive into another machine (except hidden folders, which only work against non-tech-savvy thieves, anyway).
jcl - Passwords are great, the more complicated, the better. However when your laptop is stolen, why would they put their time in it cracking your OS password. If plugging the HDD in another computer bypasses it completely.
yeah, unless the drive content is encrypted you can just mount it on another system and take whatever you want. You can even boot to linux off a usb and do this.