Jeff Barcy makes life investment in real estate

There is much uncertainty for people looking to buy houses and residential land in this economy, which makes people such as Jeff Barcy who skillfully handle investments in the real estate market all the more valuable.

Jeff Barcy, a Harvard graduate who found his early victories on the college wrestling team, tackled Wall Street after graduating with his MBA. He then moved on to investment banking with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in Los Angeles, where he rose to the level of director of real estate investment banking practice. After the L.A. investment banking firm, he joined Hearthstone, an investor in for-sale real estate in San Francisco.

Today, Jeff Barcy has risen through the ranks to become CEO and co-founder of an investment management firm that focuses on endangered residential opportunities. That firm, Ridgeback Partners, employs 75 people and has handled billions in investor capital.

It may be time for eyeglasses

As much as I hate to admit it, it may be time for me to invest in some good eyeglasses.

Lately, when I drive at night, I've noticed I have a lot of trouble judging how far away cars are when all I can see are their headlights. Even during the day, I have to practically be driving underneath a street sign before I can read it.

For someone like me who has never needed glasses before, the prospect of finding the right pair is a little bit daunting. So I did what I always do when shopping for an important item and started online. Where I stopped is at eyeglasses.com.

This Web site breaks its extensive stock into categories, such as vintage, round, small, rimless and unique, so its easier to narrow the search to my personal style. I can also view the glasses by brand. The Web site even provides a list of eye doctors according to state, so I can easily learn what kind of lens I need.

Once I find what I'm looking for, all I have to do is put it in my virtual shopping cart and wait for the mail. If I discover the frames I chose are wrong for my face, I have 30 days to return them for a full refund.

Now I just have to decide whether I want to be vintage or classic.

Amos Tamam pioneered a useful taxi technology

It happens to all of us.

You're visiting a big city and need to grab a taxi, but you realize immediately after you've victoriously hailed a signature yellow cab that you aren't carrying any cash. With the invention of plastic, the number of people who carry cash has steadily dwindled. Plus, a pocket full of paper is much more successfully picked than a pocket full of plastic.

Thanks to Amos Tamam, an import from Tel Aviv University, visitors to Philadelphia and New York City have one less reason to carry cash. Using his skills as an electrical engineer, Amos Tamam developed wireless technology that allows cab drivers to take credit cards as payment.

Looking at the usefulness of this technology from the perspective of the cab drivers, they will likely have less cash onboard to tempt would-be robbers.

Although Amos Tamam's wireless credit-card technology is now available only to fleets in New York City and Philadelphia, he is in negotiations to bring the system to fleets in other major cities around the U.S.