Well, I feel silly now.

My company's security passes, like any sensible security pass, carefully avoid mentioning the name or address of the company, so that if I get my pocket picked then the card is unlikely to do the thief any good because he doesn't know where it'll let him into. Even the ‘if found please return to’ address is an anonymous Securicor address, so that it's not obvious on whose behalf Securicor are acting.

The detectors are proximity-based, so you have to wave the card near the detector to open a door. This is inconvenient if the card is in your pocket; so a couple of years ago, the company issued everyone with handy little yo-yo-like spring-loaded holders, so that you could clip the thing to your belt, stretch it out towards the detector, and have it automatically wind the string back up. Very convenient. Except that Marketing thought it would be a good piece of advertising to put the company logo on the yo-yos! Arrrgh.

So, like the conscientious security geek I am, I've spent some time complaining about this to anyone who would listen. I even went to the Facilities guy himself, who said yes, lots of people had complained about that, and no, they unfortunately couldn't do anything about it. I considered taking my own yo-yo apart and trying to remove the logo, but I couldn't see any way to get it open without being unable to ever get it closed again.

Today, one of the new guys in our group pointed out that the logo is actually just stuck on the outside of the thing, with sticky-label adhesive! (This wasn't obvious since it's a moulded shaped logo set in a recess, and doesn't look like a sticky label at all.) So I've just prised it off with a penknife and now I'm happy. But I feel very silly about the amount of time I've spent bitching about this to all and sundry over the last year or so, when ten seconds with a Leatherman could have solved the problem at any time…