Survivor’s IT guy gets whacked

CBS reality show "Survivor" contestant and director of information systems for the College of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley Yau-Man Chan, a favorite of last years' "Survivor: Fiji," was no favorite this year: He was the second person voted out of his tribe on last night's "Survivor: Micronesia" show. Yau-Man, 55, had survived until the final four contestants last season.

Yao Man said after the show last night that he was a very big target from his game on Survivor Fiji and that Survivor is a cruel game and that's how it goes. He has no hard feelings.

After last season, Yau-Man talked about his Survivor experience with Network World and talked about how IT skills translated to his success on the show. He said: "The only thing I took is the ability to analyze and problem solve. In the IT field, especially in network infrastructure and keeping the network running, when there are problems, analytical and organizational skills are important. When you play a game like Survivor, which is strategic, every time you encounter a challenge, it helps to analyze the situation and try to go at it not by brute force - because I can not compete against those young guys - but to figure out the optimum way to solve the problem."

Survivor pits contestants in a variety of mental and physical challenges for a period of 39 days (this season anyway). The goal is for one person to "outwit, outlast and outplay' other survivors.

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