proc standardize & data frame x and y

1) Can someone recommend an equivalent to SAS PROC Standardize in R?  I
am in need to frequently standardize a data frame, with z-scores, or
squash to 0-1 scale - is there a slick function or package someone can
recommend?

You could try rescaler in the reshape package.  It currently supports
five column wise rescaling/standardisation methods (common range,
common variance, robust equivalent, rank, do nothing), and I could add
more if needed.

Regards,

Hadley