The Social Security administration rolled out a new version of its online benefits calculator today. The new version of the benefits calculator requires less input from the user by making use of the Social Security database to determine past wages. The new incarnation also enables users to factor in higher future earnings when calculating benefits, making for a more realistic outcome. The new "Retirement Estimator" is available right now on the Social Security website.

I was excited to learn that the SSA has taken at least half of the guesswork out of the benefit calculator by accessing the past data they have on you; unfortunately you're still left to determine what you will make for the rest of your working years.

Even if you have to make an educated guess in order to complete the process, the benefit calculator is still way more useful than the bleak annual mailing I've gotten for several years now, informing me of my current benefits, which suggest that I will be lucky to collect 78 cents on the dollar in my retirement.

There sure are a lot of tech and gadget minded people out there. From true geeks to just the tech interested people on the user end, we abound in gadget literate people. The bloggers on our sister blog, DIYLife have done a great deal of touring around the blog-holds of the Internet and I would now like to bring you on a tour involving six tech, do-it -yourself, and gadget blogs which they've introduced to us or have helped us to become more familiar with.

There's something in my blog list for almost everyone, you'll have to look at them all to decide which ones are for you. I present them in no specific order of value. Some of these blogs are from our own Weblogs Network and the truth is that they are all great. I'm also providing links to some outstanding material from and about these blogs for you to review.