HackerNews Summary (2023-05-01 09PM)

Source: A look back at the Argus C44 rangefinder camera

Summary
The Argus C44 is a durable camera that was perfect for an everyman. Although it wasn’t as fancy as other cameras of its time, with proper lighting conditions and a steady hand, the images it produces stand up to modern-day standards.

Facts

📷 The Argus C44 was built with sturdy metal construction.

🔍 Comes with an attractive set of three lenses (tele, normal, and wide) in individual leather cases.

💡 It doesn’t have a light meter.

🔧 The lens mount is relatively infuriating but the 50mm f/2.8 can be used.

💻 The Argus C44 was one of the first camera lenses ever designed with the help of an electronic computer, University of Michigan’s MIDAC.

📸 The focus ring and rangefinder are difficult to use and only give an approximation of the focus, which could be improved with metering the scene and choosing the right film speed.

💰 Prices for the Argus C44 on eBay start at $50 without a complete set of lenses.

Source: SIMD with Zig

Summary
We can use SIMD to leverage CPU instructions and check multiple characters of our input in parallel. Using Zig, we can create vectors and compare them using arithmetic or bitwise operations. A quick solution to extract the index of the first instance of a character is to use the std.simd.firstTrue function.

Facts

💻 SIMD can leverage CPU instructions to check multiple characters of our input in parallel.

🧬 Vectors can be subjected to any arithmetic or bitwise operations.

📈 std.simd.firstTrue gives us the index of the first true value in a vector.

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