yes it's from that book:p

And automatic mapping sucks, it always breaks up where you don't want it to break up, you get as i said a mijon pieces.
Trst me this method is better.
When i used automatic mapping it took me several days to unwrap the model, this way it took 1 hour to unwrap the whole model i made(approx same polycount and complexity as previous model), including mistakes..
If you have the money and your willing to spend i suggest you buy learning maya7 the modeling and animation handbook .
And again good luck