Comment by 201984

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was asking.

  start = gettime()
  variable_time_crypto_operation()
  end = gettime()
  sleep(1sec - (end - start)) // Use a loop if necessary here

If the operation takes a couple ms and the sleep was 1sec, then how much information would realistically leak here? Sure the sleep might not be perfect, but I'd imagine the actual timing difference would get lost just in how much longer the sleep is.