The Scanning Company Said Cut the Spine. So I Used My Phone.

There is a 1974 German theology book that exists in almost no library. One copy lives with its owner here in Korea. He wanted it translated into Korean. I offered to help. First step: get it scanned properly. I visited a professional scanning company. They said the book needed to be taken apart — pages separated, binding cut — before they could run it through their equipment. I relayed this to the owner. He said: do not cut this book. The scanning company said: then we cannot help you. ...

June 15, 2026 · 7 min · VibePapa

In the AI Age, Knowing a Tool Exists Is Most of the Work

You’ve probably felt this. Someone mentions a technology — Cloudflare Tunnel, RAG, Termux, vector search — and a small door closes in your head. “That sounds powerful,” you think, “but it’s not for me. I’m not an engineer.” For most of my life, that feeling was right. Knowing the name of a technology got you almost nowhere. Between the name and a working result there were months of study, and a level of skill I was never going to reach. ...

June 14, 2026 · 7 min · VibePapa