Looks like Alex picked a fight with non-other than Francesco Balena, long time coder and regional director, and personally someone who's code and tips I've used as a VB developer for many of my projects. Francesco is the co-author of this book, which Alex just gave a scathing review on.
Personally, I think Alex is too harsh. I know Fancesco's work for a long time and trust him when he writes a book about best practices such as the one mentioned. You should definitely go read his comment to the aforementioned post on the bottom - it's enlightening.
Alex posted more, with less harsh words.
If anything, it looks like I'm going to order this book now - it seems very cool.
Was this just a clever marketing ploy?