u/QQubid

I’m considering renting a car and driving from Naples at 8 am to my hotel in Ravello. This will be first week of September. I want to take the scenic route, someone suggested that would be Naples → A3 → **Vietri sul Mare → Cetara → Maiori → Minori → Ravello.**

Would you all recommend this? How long do you think this trip would take with the occasional stop to stretch my legs? Is it worth it? I generally like to drive, and I’ve driven in countries like India and Pakistan which are known for lax enforcement of driving rules. But I’ve also heard this is an incredibly dangerous drive? Is it worse than highway 1 in California for those that can make a comparison?

My hotel in Ravello offers a shuttle from Naples but I thought it would be more fun to drive. Would love to hear your collective wisdom.

Is it just or me did it seem like Niccolo, for maybe the first time, wasn't super upbeat about the progress on the quantum computing side of things during the Q2 earnings call yesterday? He often deflected to other parts of the company, he didn't say IonQ has an X amount of years advantage against the competition (which he has been saying for a while now), and I wouldn't describe his language or tone as being committed to the super aggressive timeline they unveiled last year.

When speaking about DARPA and Phase C of QBI, he said something like "it's up to DARPA if they have anything to announce or not about us", which almost made it seem like he isn't confident IonQ will make it to Stage C of the program anytime soon.

Look, I'm not poo pooing the company, the earnings report was awesome. But for IonQ to really become the multiplier I think many of us hope it will be, the computing part will likely be core to that.

I noticed that IonQ's comms this quarter has been incredibly muted compared to previous quarters. Fewer scientific or business announcements and a lot of generic reposts of Fed activity like the Quantum Executive Order. Nothing on Genesis either. Do you all feel a little unsettled by the information vacuum over the last few months or is it just me?

I'm just going off some recent, likely unrelated news. But (i) with the Skywater deal not yet closed, (ii) IonQ sponsoring the UFC event at the White House, (iii) IonQ registering a team of lobbyists on the Hill, and (iv) no IonQ representative in the Oval Office as Trump signs an EO, it almost appears as if IonQ is trying to get back into the good graces of the prevailing administration. I wonder what happened...