a guest on Mar 11th, 2012 - pastebin.com/0DWetuis

gistfile1.js

function secondsFromTime(string){
	
	var split = string.split(":")
        var seconds = parseInt(split.pop())
	if (seconds !== NaN) {
                var minutes = parseInt(split.pop())
		if (minutes !== NaN) {
                        var hours = parseInt(split.pop())
			if (hours !==  NaN) {
				return hours * 60 * 60 + minutes * 60 + seconds
			} else return minutes*60 + seconds
		} else return seconds;
	}else return false;
}