When I said "Host your own" I meant on a physically secure box using full disk encryption.
But I do like the idea of encryption, GPG does this really well already but key distribution is still a problem.
Just an idea for a secure physical box:
Throw in a external "always on" GPS receiver on the box and have it physically destroy the hard drive if it is outside of a certain area or if it detects a certain amount of movement (think someone removing it from a rack without disabling the service first). If your server was moved/confiscated it would ensure some safety. Just a tinfoil thought.
I've always tried to devote as much time to my work as possible, whenever possible. However my job drained the energy out of me and made any effort I put in become spread out over multiple little projects. The main reason I'm asking this here is because I have a nice amount of time to sit down and work on one little project until completion.
Honestly if I can hold it in my hands and it works in a unconventional way, it's brilliant.
Another poster mentioned GB development, I honestly think controlling external devices (AVR, Arduino, etc) in a standard way using something like a GameBoy would be a worthwhile project.
I've been looking at GB Development fairly closely, might put together some kind of little project in that. Extremely close to the hardware which is always nice and I just need a little flash cart to let it run on my old GBC to show it off. Thanks!