About Icetips

Icetips offers software tools for Clarion developers, from templates to classes to code. Icetips also offers free information about developing in Clarion, general programming, Icetips products, and related issues.

Located in Port Angeles, Washington, USA, Icetips is part of the Washington-registered company Icetips Alta LLC. Partners Arnor Baldvinsson and Susan Pichotta own and run the company.

Started in 1994

Icetips was started in 1994 by Arnor Baldvinsson of Iceland and Rick Beckemeyer of the United States, who were Clarion programmers and online friends. Rick provided the early internet hosting for the site and Arnor authored and managed the content.

Originally a repository of information and free files, Icetips became known throughout the Clarion community as one of the first and most comprehensive websites dedicated to Clarion. Hundreds of files and webpages containing tips, tricks, reviews and programming information were made available. Icetips grew to be a central point of file distribution and information for Clarion developers around the globe.

2001: The Next Step

Through the years, while living in Iceland, then Denmark, then the United States, Arnor continued to work with Clarion and the Icetips website. In 2001, he was in Texas with a wife and new baby to support when a much-needed programming contract fell through at the last minute. While waiting for the "start now" that never came, Arnor wrote some cool new code wizards for his own use.

When the contract programming project died, money was needed. Arnor's wife had sold her own software in the past, so she encouraged Arnor to finish the wizards and offer them for sale. Arnor had always wanted to sell items he made himself, so the products side of Icetips was born.

Icetips' next product was the Icetips Report Previewer, which was an instant success. Over time, more products were added, some were retired, and some were acquired. Along the way, wife and business partner Sue Pichotta took over most of the website work, while Arnor concentrated his efforts on programming and support.

And now:

Arnor & Sue's committment to Icetips and the Clarion community remains strong. Arnor releases updates to Icetips products as often as possible, writes tech & news articles on the Icetips blog, adds items to the Icetips Utilities (which is a nice catch-all for many different handy Clarion tools and functions), and releases a new product every now and then. Icetips is alive and well, and looking forward to the future with the Clarion community.

About Arnor

A native Icelander, Arnor was raised on a small farm in eastern Iceland, where he dealt with cows, sheep, hay, crops and weather. As a young man, he also worked as a longshoreman on the local docks to pay for college. He has a degree in Agriculture from Iceland's Hvanneyri Agricultural College.

Iceland's long winters give a farmer extra time; Arnor used that time in the mid-80s to learn about his new PC. When he could not find good farming software, he learned programming and wrote his own. First he used Basic and Pascal, then he moved on to Clarion. Soon, Arnor was teaching computer classes and doing consulting all along Iceland's eastern fjords.

Arnor moved to Denmark in the mid-90s and worked for a software company using Clarion. While there, he became a member of "Team TopSpeed Internet Connect", an international group of Clarion programmers who were recognized for their expertise and online support.

In the late 90s, Arnor went back to Iceland for a short time, then to Texas, where he married his wife (who was also a Clarion developer). A daughter soon followed. In 2008, Arnor and family moved north to Port Angeles, Washington. The mountains, ocean, clean air and rural living remind him of Iceland. In his spare time, Arnor enjoys photography, cooking and spending time with family and friends.

About Sue

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