The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has approved the PDF as a standard format for electronic documents. ISO has christened version 1.7 of PDF, the current working version, ISO 32000-1.
"As an ISO standard, we can ensure that this useful and widely popular format is easily available to all interested stakeholders," said ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden in a statement. "The standard will benefit both software developers and users by encouraging the propagation and dissemination of a common technology that cuts across systems and is designed for long-term survival."

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With Adobe relinquishing control of PDF, the ISO Document Management Applications Technical Committee will review any changes made to the format. The openly published standard provides the technical information required for writing software programs that can create and read PDF files, ensuring that organizations will always have some tools available to render PDFs, even if Adobe stops shipping its PDF viewer.

Awesome.

So here's our new policy on A.P. stories: they don't exist. We don't see them, we don't quote them, we don't link to them. They're banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet.

Awesome. I don't agree with all of their policies, but I agree with this.

Now Whole Foods, which has pledged to eliminate plastic bags in all 270 stores by Earth Day, is selling a limited-edition GreeNYC cotton bag in 16 of its New York metropolitan region stores during the month of April at $11.99 a pop. It is the first of a series of cotton bags that will be introduced over each of the next several months by GreeNYC, the PlaNYC environmental campaign which features that lopsided 1970s-era bird (what kind of bird is it again?).

The article goes on to state that each year, the US requires 12 million barrels of oil to produce all these bags. Considering that the US consumes 20.9 million barrels a day (2005 CIA factbook estimate), 12 million barrels is a mere 0.15% of our annual consumption. Even if no one ever used plastic bags ever again, the amount of oil used wouldn't decrease even a quarter of a percent.

There are more effective ways to use less oil, if that's your goal, but they aren't hip and trendy like this and they require lifestyle changes.

AOL has done an about-face regarding third-party access to the company's AIM chat network. AOL's recently launched OpenAIM 2.0 provides open, uninhibited access to services like Meebo, or all-in-one IM clients like Pidgin, allowing them to freely and easily use the AIM instant messaging network.

That's quite a change from AOL's previous stance toward such competitors, which seemed to be somewhere between sticking its head in the sand and unleashing a pack of angry lawyers.

As a step toward returning to the moon, NASA announced last week that Boeing will be the lead contractor for the Ares I rocket. Interestingly, Popular Mechanics reports that the system's specifications will be "open-source and non-proprietary" to encourage competition on future contracts.

What are your "good," "ethical," or "moral" criteria for spending your money? Organic? Fair Trade? Made in America? No Animals Harmed in the Making Of This ____? For the dollars you spend on goods and services, what values do you consider other than the value to yourself? Explain why.

Judging by all the responses, it seems there are lots of people who have their reasons to buy or not buy certain products. Though I guess for every person who responded, there's another twenty who don't give a fuck.

Our agency receives its share of RFPs, and sometimes these requests stipulate that our proposal include layouts. Even if the project looks promising, we just say no.

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The AIGA strongly advises its members never to design on spec, and we know of no professional web agency that disregards that advice. Most potential clients who've initially requested that we submit designs along with our proposals understand our reasons for saying no. Those who insist on getting free designs anyway are simply advertising the fact that they would not be good clients to work for.

We will officially close Yahoo! Photos on Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to move to another photo sharing service (Flickr, KODAK Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Photobucket), download your original-resolution photos back to your computer, or buy an archive CD from our featured partner (for users of the New Yahoo! Photos only). All you need to do is tell us what to do with your photos before we close, after which any photos remaining on Yahoo! Photos will be deleted and no longer accessible.

Trusting someone with all of your photos is a big thing, especially considering most computer users aren't too good with managing their data and these online copies may, in fact, be the only existing photos. Kudos to Yahoo for giving everyone ample notice and several easy ways to get their data back.

Gap card users receive 10% off purchases the first Tuesday of every month.

CARD75 - 20% of $75 with Gap/OldNavy/BR card, expiration unknown.
CARD50 - 15% off $50 with Gap/OldNavy/BR card, expiration unknown.
FREESHIP - Free shipping on $50 or more with Gap card, no expiration.
AMEXSHIP - Free shipping on $50 or more (might need AMEX card).

Since Gap is pretty socially responsible and only a tiny bit expensive, this will come in handy.