function time_since($original) {

// array of time period chunks

$chunks = array(

array(60 * 60 * 24 * 365 , 'year' ),

array(60 * 60 * 24 * 30 , 'month' ),

array(60 * 60 * 24 * 7, 'week' ),

array(60 * 60 * 24 , 'day' ),

array(60 * 60 , 'hour' ),

array(60 , 'minute' ),

);$today = time(); /* Current unix time */

$since = $today - $original;

// $j saves performing the count function each time around the loop

for ($i = 0, $j = count($chunks); $i < $j; $i++) {

    $seconds = $chunks[$i][0];

$name = $chunks[$i][1];

    // finding the biggest chunk (if the chunk fits, break)

if (($count = floor($since / $seconds)) != 0) {

// DEBUG print "<!-- It's $name -->n";

break;

}

}

$print = ($count == 1) ? '1 '.$name : "$count {$name}s";

if ($i + 1 < $j) {

// now getting the second item

$seconds2 = $chunks[$i + 1][0];

$name2 = $chunks[$i + 1][1];

    // add second item if it's greater than 0

if (($count2 = floor(($since - ($seconds * $count)) / $seconds2)) != 0) {

$print .= ($count2 == 1) ? ', 1 '.$name2 : ", $count2 {$name2}s";

}

}

return $print;

}

I also found a second more compact version from byteinsider their version (below) takes the input in the form of the MySQL timestamp format (Y-m-d H:i:s) both functions output the same type of thing tho, so its up to you which you use.

function time_since($mysql_timestamp)

{

$names =  array('year','month','day','hour','minute','second');$r = time()-strtotime($mysql_timestamp) - date('Z');

$posted = array(date('Y',$r)-1970,date('n',$r)-1,date('d',$r)-1,

 date('G',$r)-0,date('i',$r)-0,date('s',$r)-0);

for($n = 0; $n < 5 && $posted[$n] == 0; $n++);

$output = $posted[$n].' '.$names[$n];

if($posted[$n] != 1) $output .='s';

if($n < 5 && $posted[$n+1] != 0)

{

 $output .= ' '.$posted[$n+1].' '.$names[$n+1];

 if($posted[$n+1] != 1) $output .='s';

}

return $output.' ago';

}