

The article is discussing how to reduce the constant time factor which depends on the filling fraction, which is a speed-memory tradeoff when creating the hash table.
The innovation described allows for the use of fuller tables which are resized less frequently, or faster insertion/retrieval for the existing filling fraction.
MD always felt like a ripoff to me because you had to buy a bunch of overpriced disks from the sole supplier and then carry them all around in a little wallet.
As soon as the first hard drive MP3 players like the Rio came out, MD was a dead end.