That schematic is a basic one, it should work.
The resistor value is a 'generic' value; it worked for him under certain conditions, but can't be guaranteed to work for you. Thus you will need to do some testing yourself. With that resistor, build up the circuit (temporarily) and then try to shine the light on a white paper, than a dark paper. (Have your multimeter connected) and see what the values are. If the difference between the values is not very high, you will need a different resistor in place.
-Omar
EDIT: Just noticed, shouldn't this be in the Robotics forum?