Many things in that article that I disagree with, but my reason for posting to this thread is that the article isn't about connectingstuff via the AUX, but rather about using an external audio card in the form of a USB DAC (which, btw, is nothing "new").
With many computers these days, you don't even have to tie up a USB or firewire port, but use the combination minijack that is both analogue and digital (optical, usually).