sketch of a busy timer

busy-timer.el

(defconst shapr-idle-duration 60)

(defvar shapr-busy-timer nil)

(defun shapr-busy ()
  (when shapr-busy-timer
    (cancel-timer shapr-busy-timer))
  ;; Do some http stuff here
  (setq shapr-busy-timer
          (run-with-idle-timer
            (time-add (current-idle-time) shapr-idle-duration)
            nil
            'shapr-busy)))