Hacker News: CalRobert

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 06:50:27 +0000

Yeah and we have them but it’s annoying when you’re choosing between roasting or getting absolutely eaten alive by bugs in an Airbnb in Killarney.

New comment by CalRobert in "Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died"

CalRobert — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 05:28:07 +0000

Shame. E1M8 (Sign of Evil) is still a great metal tune

New comment by CalRobert in "I told them forced consent was unlawful. 5 years later it cost Elkjop €1.8M"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 08:32:33 +0000

I agree!!

To be clear, if you ask for consent in a way that is actually legal, almost nobody will actually consent.

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 07:20:00 +0000

oops, "full fare" replaces one of those "family of 4"

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 05:43:41 +0000

I’m from the US and moved to the Netherlands but there are still some things I prefer about the US (bug screens on windows for instance)

New comment by CalRobert in "I told them forced consent was unlawful. 5 years later it cost Elkjop €1.8M"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 05:26:43 +0000

Getting consent in a truly compliant way is basically impossible (it should be opt IN, not opt OUT). Though we've trained people to just accept literally everything now.

New comment by CalRobert in "I told them forced consent was unlawful. 5 years later it cost Elkjop €1.8M"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 05:24:19 +0000

I grated a bit at an EU company's use of https://www.crosschq.com/ recently.

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:46:55 +0000

This has crossed my mind for other things too, like immigration.

People say they don't want immigrants because of crime (whether that's a reasonable concern is a different topic entirely), but it presupposes that laws against crime aren't enforced. If we had stricter law enforcement would people worry about (immigrants, the homeless, etc.) less?

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:45:17 +0000

I love paying a euro for the toilet in Europe and getting one that 1) actually works and 2) isn't utterly vile.

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:42:36 +0000

Time, too - they print a card with your photo on it and it takes a couple weeks to show up.

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:36:20 +0000

Kids under 12 free, too. I don't look forward to having to pay for both of them. Utrecht to Amsterdam round trip for a family of 4 is €80 for a family of 4, or €48 with the discount.

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:26:15 +0000

Are the city streets tolled?

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:20:42 +0000

Absolutely not in every suburb.

I used to live in a suburb in Sacramento and just walking to the closest grocery store was over an hour

New comment by CalRobert in "Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month"

CalRobert — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:19:28 +0000

In English: https://www.ns.nl/en/season-tickets/dal-vrij

New comment by CalRobert in "Banned book library in a wi-fi smart light bulb"

CalRobert — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:29:21 +0000

popular refrain around the "Free Kevin" era ca. 1999 or so. See also "Boycott RIAA" etc.

I shared its optimism and naivete :-(

New comment by CalRobert in "Peopleless economy? Not technically impossible"

CalRobert — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 05:19:25 +0000

Thatched roofs are an expensive art installation compared to many other types

New comment by CalRobert in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"

CalRobert — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:56:49 +0000

No, but I have a very strong interest in it. I also built a real estate search platform that put public transit and biking first and it achieved a little bit of success in Ireland (not a place with great transit or biking) before I finally had to stop investing time into it.

New comment by CalRobert in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"

CalRobert — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 13:30:53 +0000

How do I object to automated decision making?

New comment by CalRobert in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"

CalRobert — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 05:13:49 +0000

For EU residents at least the HR data should be accessible via subject access request (though enforcement is poor)

New comment by CalRobert in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"

CalRobert — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 05:09:40 +0000

Cool! There don't appear to be any jobs listed though?