A unique Christmas Gift idea for my husband?

Firstly: It was your chosen assignment, so you should really use your own thoughts to formulate a response, that is compare the ER to something in a computer. You can't compare it to a "Full computer" as the computer, just like the body, has several elements that come together to form what we see.

Secondly, I like your question, so I'll try to help you out by giving you my thoughts on the subject.

Now, to do this, you have to look at the problem in two ways:

1. What does the computer do (or what does parts of computer do)

2. What does the ER do?

Computer: Computer as a whole facilitates complex tasks using software written in logical programming. It has several elements to itself that may be broadly described as Hardware and Software.

Hardware includes -- CPU (the brain of the computer, central processing unit), motherboard (which hosts all other peripherals such as video card, sound card, RAM, including the CPU), your disk drives, keyboard, mouse, monitor.

Software includes -- Operating system, and other programs that you use, such as the word processor, the internet browser, msn/yahoo messengers, etc.

What does the ER do?

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Excerpt from wikipedia:

[...]The endoplasmic reticulum serves many general functions, including the facilitation of protein folding and the transport of synthesized proteins in sacs called cisternae. Correct folding of newly-made proteins [...]

[...] Only properly-folded proteins are transported from the rough ER to the Golgi complex.

Transport of proteins

Secretory proteins, mostly glycoproteins, are moved across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Proteins that are transported by the endoplasmic reticulum and from there throughout the cell are marked with an address tag called a signal sequence. [...]

[...] Proteins that are destined for places outside the endoplasmic reticulum are packed into transport vesicles and moved along the cytoskeleton toward their destination.

The endoplasmic reticulum is also part of a protein sorting pathway. It is, in essence, the transportation system of the eukaryotic cell. [...]

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So it seems that the major functions of ER in the cell are:

- Properly folding proteins after they are synthesized and moving the properly folded proteins to the Golgi Complex for further processing/packaging and transportation.

- Properly transporting the proteins to their destination by marking them appropriately.

- Smooth ER (not included in the wikipedia excerpt) helps in removing toxins, removing bad things from the body.

Now that we have established the functionality of the ER, what does it relate to in a computer? Of course a computer as a whole won't relate to the ER as the computer does several things, but parts of computer can definitely be related to the ER

I personally think that you can relate the ER to an Operating system (such as Windows XP). Operating system is basically a layer, between the USER (that is you using your Internet browser) and the hardware lying underneath (such as the CPU, motherboard, etc.). The job of operating system is quite complex as it must make using the computer easier, providing a library to the other software to do their intended tasks.

If you think of it this way, ER which helps in creating the proteins, sends them to appropriate place and tries to remove bad things, can be compared to an OS which helps in creating the responses given by the CPU, taking out bad things that our users input into it, bad data, etc, providing the responses from the CPU, transporting them to the correct software. Basically taking care of the flow of information between the hardware and User (software). Just like the ER taking care of the flow of newly synthesized material between other parts of cell or outside the cell and the brain of the cell (that is the nucleus).

Others may come up with different analogies, in my opinion though it makes sense.

TLDR: Operating system in a computer can be compared to ER in functionality.

Source(s):

my brain, little help from wikipedia.

This may sound a little crazy, but how about giving the person their own website? I dont mean a cheapo free website, but a real website, with all the tools to make it great.

It comes with Wordpress to make the website which is very easy to use.

It will cost about $40. and you get a lot of goodies for that.

What I did was get the host, then get domain name in the persons name (www.lucysite.com) and then I actually made a quick page that expressed my feelings. Then the person can keep that but change it to their own website. Its easy and your friend will love it. They might even make money with it.

I left below a link that will walk you through the two steps.

Good luck.

If he likes beer you can get him a capcatcher bottle opener from capcatchers.com. they're unique, and can be personalized.

- Unique kitchen knife

http://www.giftids.com/homedecor/products/evidence...

- Or an unique kitchen knife set

http://www.giftids.com/homedecor/products/exknife....

how do you think of ugg boots in this cold winter?