[another-dave]

> "until I bought another one and left it in the office"

Ooh! You mean 'whoever has the spoon has the lock', type thing? I genuinely presumed you meant, 'don't mess up this code with conflicts or you'll get a smack of the wooden spoon' :D

[staofbur]

Yes it was a "hardware lock" i.e. the holder of the spoon was allowed to diff their copy with the master on a file share and update that. The spoon was used as a casual weapon to beat idiots as well in jest ;)