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You're gonna love it. I've never tried the gizmo to which you link, but it looks interesting. I do my fermentations the easy way, with one of these crocks. I have never worried about an airlock (for this anyway, homebrew beer is another story...).

I would recommend two books to get you started. Between the two, they've probably got a recipe for everything fermented you could ever want. Wild Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions. My local library had the Nourishing Traditions one.

I've made a couple of batches of sauerkraut and a batch of kim-chi. The sauerkraut I am enjoying this week with home-corned beef. YUM! Here's my sauerkraut "recipe":

Chop/shred about 5 heads of cabbage. Discard cores, or put 'em in the crock to ferment with the rest, your choice. As you chop a cabbage, start putting it in the crock, with a little bit of salt. Once you get a decent amount of cabbage built up in the crock, start pounding it with a mallet or your hands. Keep adding cabbage and a bit of salt as you go. Feel free to add any spices you want- suggestions include dill seeds and/or caraway seeds. As you continue adding cabbage, salt, and pounding it, liquid will be released from the cabbage. Once you've got all the cabbage in the crock that you are going to add, weigh the cabbage down somehow to keep it below the level of the brine. You can do this with a plate, but I prefer a ziploc bag full of salt-water (the salt-water is in case it leaks into your sauerkraut). More liquid will be released for the first day or two as active fermentation begins, and your crock may overflow, so plan for that. Capture the overflow if possible, and add it back in to the crock (the volume will reduce as the cabbage ferments). Check it as often as you want, sample as you go. It's ready when it tastes like sauerkraut. In my last batch, 5 heads of cabbage were packed into a 1 gallon crock, final volume of sauerkraut was about 1/2 gallon. Enjoy!

I have a book on it, but I haven't implemented very many of the tips yet. I didn't grow any dill or other umbelliferae last year, and I had a lot more pests than usual. Nasturtiums with squash, marigolds and basil with tomatoes, squash and beans with corn...there are a lot of companion "guilds." I plan to add a lot of tansy, yarrow, and dill this year to try to attract and harbor beneficial insects.

This is the one I got, between that, /r/mushroomgrowers, and shroomery.org I learned a whole lot.

The illustration looks identical to the James Barber books, even similar recipes

http://www.amazon.com/Ginger-Tea-Makes-Friends-Series/dp/1551922843