timeout.js

function timeout(callback, wait) {
  var cancel = window.setTimeout(callback, wait);
  return function() {
    window.clearTimeout(cancel);
  }
}

cancel_the_timeout = timeout(function() { alert("hi") }, 3600);

cancel_the_timeout();

Yeah that's a lovely pattern. I ended up slightly augmenting it to allow inspection of state from outside, as well as cancelling the timer.

return {
  running: function() { return timerID },
  cancel: function() { window.clearTimeout(timerID); timerID = null; }
}