public static  void execute(Thread task,
    long timeout) throws TimeoutController.TimeoutException 
{
        task.start();
        try {
            task.join(timeout);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            /* if somebody interrupts us he knows what he is doing */
        }
        if (task.isAlive()) {
            task.interrupt();
            throw new TimeoutException();
        }
}

Executes task. Waits for timeout milliseconds for the task to end and returns. If the task does not return in time, the thread is interrupted and an Exception is thrown. The caller should override the Thread.interrupt() method to something that quickly makes the thread die or use Thread.isInterrupted().

 public static  void execute(Runnable task,
    long timeout) throws TimeoutController.TimeoutException 
{
        Thread t = new Thread(task, "Timeout guard");
        t.setDaemon(true);
        execute(t, timeout);
}

Executes task in a new deamon Thread and waits for the timeout.