God, I don't want to be drawn into perpetually defending the guy, but web standards and usability are GOOD THINGS. Nielsen may not be right with all he says, and he may have an iffy haircut (as if this counts as a criterion for authority!), but in a thread asking for blogging tips - started by someone who I think wants to invest some care into how they post and how it looks - then advice like Nielsen's is worth reading. We're all free to ignore it; I happen to think it's mostly pretty sound, and I spend my life working in web publishing.
For what it's worth, I also think John touches on something important too - Nielsen is writing for a particular sort of blogger, one who sees it as a semi-professional activity, or at least a serious hobby. There are reasons why you might not want to include your name, or a photo (I don't have a good digital one of myself, for example, so I don't, but when I do I probably will put it up), and they're fine, but behind Nielsen's advice is that you should at least think about these things if you want your blog to appeal to more than the most narrow community.
Of course, if you include your name or other obvious identifier, you should always think about the possibility of an employer, or your mum, reading it. Not to is just dumb.