David Albers

My name is Dave Albers and I have been involved in some form of computer technology since 11th grade.  That was 1973 for me!  A local business had donated their old UNIVAC mainframe to my high school.  It didn’t work but boy was it fun to try to make it work.  This experience began a passion that was interrupted by life and other distractions.  Fortunately 10 years later I married a woman who inspired me to again pursue my passion.  I had stumbling through jobs, up to this point, that had provided no satisfaction.  My lovely wife persuaded me to return to school.  In the mid 80s the information technology field was just beginning to boom and the path to education was not quite as clear as it is today.   I was fortunate to join a number of companies that provided excellent on the job experience albeit with a considerable investment in time!  In other words they worked me hard like a dog actually. Today rather than doing the work I manage the smart people and hope they don’t ever realize how much I don’t know; although they are smart after all; so they likely already do.

Al Burr is not my name, but you can probably see at one least one reason why I use this name for my public persona.  However the real story behind this name is attributed to my father, Ralph Albers.  When my Dad was in college he was working at the college radio station WBKY now WUKY.

During a meeting the station manager asked everyone for ideas for new programming.  My Dad innocently suggested a poetry reading show.  Well the station manager thought that was a great idea and “volunteered” my Dad!  My Dad had intended it only as a suggestion but surprise…tag you're it.  So for the next few years my father read poetry on WBKY for thirty (30) minutes.  The show name… The Al Burr Show of course.  So this is a small modernized version and a tribute to my Dad who was and will always be my favorite HAM.  Not sure I will be reading poetry…however it’s not out of the realm of possibilities.

Oh that’s right this is the about me section… First you will quickly realize that I am a believer is the ellipsis… So I apologize in advance for its overuse on my website and in my writings.

As I said earlier, for money, I manage a group of talented systems engineers.  This is for NetIQ.  We are a software company that specializes in enterprise class Datacenter, Security, Governance and Identity Management software.  I happen to be part of the Federal group.  Some of what you will eventually see and hear on this podcast will be related to my work with the Federal customers and their IT projects.

On the personal side I am married to a lovely women.  We just celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary.  We have two wonderful teenage daughters…one in college the other in high school.  Both my wife and I are waking to the fact the we are rapidly approaching empty nester status!  What will we do…?  Raising children is a full time job and one that my wife has carried more that her fair share of the challenges.  We share a number of passions that will be exciting to rediscover when the girls are on their own. Some of those I hope to explore here with you.

I will add to this over time as I build out my broadcast and website… there’s that ellipsis again…

The Al Burr Show will be a weekly 30-60m show where I discuss what is relevant to me and whomever ends up listening.  The topics will likely be around technology, aviation, computer gaming, classic cars, photography and various science related areas.