setInterval doesn't work?

Closures:

setInterval(function() {updateTime(until); }, 1000);

The trouble is that you're passing the code to setInterval as a string. This means that it's evaluated in the global scope. The variable until does not exist in the global scope, only in the scope where it's defined.

If you pass a function in, this means that the variable until is available (it's "closed in"):

setInterval(function() {
    updateTime(until);
},1000);