The article is from 2004. In the meantime, we've seen considerable progress. The mindshare of banging nails with rocks (as opposed to a nailgun or a hammer) has gone up considerably since 2004.
Banging with rocks is out of date. We now bang nails with concrete — that way you can cement your banging tool out of any pebbles you like. Sure, sometimes one of the pebbles (like the one that keeps the left side of your banging block straight) falls out and gets lost and you can't bang any nails that day, but that's the price of progress.
But now the smooth rock is hard to grip and deflects off of the nail too easily and you still scratch your hands or smash your fingers. Not to mention that each smooth rock is shaped slightly differently. When you get your technique down with one rock and try the nail with the other rock you're just back to smashing your fingers. And don't get me started on the million and one rock and nail toolkits.
