[vardump]

One example seems a bit odd.

  if(LocalVariable & 0x00001000)
      return 1;
  else
      return 0;

  mov eax, [ebp - 10]
  and eax, 0x00001000
  neg eax
  sbb eax, eax
  neg eax
  ret

Hmm... wouldn't this be faster? Two instructions less:

  mov eax, [ebp - 10]
  and eax, 0x00001000
  shr eax, 12
  ret

Well, who knows. Didn't bother to analyze this case. Maybe the article's example is faster somehow?

[astrange]

The neg/sbb/neg operation is 'x = x != 0' or 'x = !!x', I think.

You're right that yours should work too, because after the and the value can only have 1 bit set. But it only works for this particular and mask.