I think certs do help and I prefer the big name certs like COMP-TIA because a lot of large corporations participate and sponsor them. If you want to work for a small company, then it probably does not matter as much. With most of a BSMIS complete, a Network+, and some Apple certs, I was able to get hired on with two other folks from my team that had consulted for a large bank for 4 years. I don't know the exact reason, but I was able to negotiate 20k more than my closest co-worker when we were hired. None of us had full degrees and I was the only one with any certs. COMP-TIA recommends A+, Network+, then security+ in that order. I may be back in the job market soon and it's a lot easier to grab a couple certs for things I already know then to deal with finishing my degree via a bunch of bullshit classes that cost a lot more. If you have a degree to finish, a lot of colleges will let you transfer over certs for credits, so you can sometimes do double-duty with certs. My college will give me 6 credit hours for an A+ and then I get to add A+ to my resume right away while I'm chipping away at the degree. I also recommend certs that will stand without having to take update tests- this will save you money and pain in the future. I will also say that although I had done a lot of networking prior to getting my Net+, I learned a lot in the process and it helped me stand out on our team. The info I learned directly applied to the project we we're on and it greatly elevated my status on the team. I was quickly assigned to work directly with our software vendor to design and test enhancements to fix a lot of issues that had been missed originally.

There is more character development in book and some of it did make it into the movie, but it's chopped up for the most part like the novel was. With the book you'll find yourself flipping back to other sections after certain discoveries, but you can't really do that in a movie theater and it's a huge amount of information all at once. There was a great deal cut out from the movie, but some of it will re-appear in the director's cut, which will add 30 minutes. I personally thought it was done probably as well as it could have been, but that will leave those that have not read it scratching their heads wondering what the big deal is and not getting a whole lot of it. Finish the book, watch it again, and then let's see how you feel differently about it.

Actually, I think it gets it's own little piece of silicon heaven

And why wouldn't it?