It doesn't mention it in the article, but definitely turning off the character portraits on the Unit Frames is a must. I also play on a small laptop right now and it saves a ton of real estate. I use Shadowed Unit Frames. You can turn off the portraits globally with just a couple clicks.

If you still need some artwork for the "feel" of the game, I'd suggest using something like Btex. Don't use one with button "groupings" though. Instead, find a nice organic texture that you can fade in a bit and put your on-screen info in that.

Bartender can fade out any bars you don't use often, and fade them in when you mouse-over a particular area. Personally, I've switched to Opie for most of my non-combat abilities, but Bartender can handle it as well if you prefer. Sexymap can fade out your map buttons in the same manner.

Lastly, I'll second the idea of using Button Facade with Bartender. In particular, the Zoomed theme is nice for laptops. It erases the borders and allows the icons to actually use that space. It's a small change, but I notice a big difference.