Boston.com picks up bad habits

The Boston Globe online has picked up a couple of bad habits from its parent, The New York Times. It now requires registration, which is fine but I wonder: why now? First step to subscriptions? Worse, it now throws a Flash ad at you once in a while before displaying an article. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but this morning I just wasn't ready for this kind of change to my routine (i.e. hadn't had my coffee yet).