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

gistfile1.js

function secondsFromTime(string){
	
	var split = string.split(":");

	if(seconds = parseInt(split.pop()) ){
		if(minutes = parseInt(split.pop())  ){
			if(hours = parseInt(split.pop())  ){
				return hours * 60 * 60 + minutes * 60 + seconds;
			} else return minutes*60 + seconds;
		} else return seconds;
	}else return false;
}