Change Mac “Ask for password after screensaver” delay

Question

How can I change my Mac OS X Snow Leopard "Ask for password after screensaver" delay?

I've tried:

defaults -currentHost write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 3600

but won't work. I want to do this through Terminal or AppleScript.

Answer 1

defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 3600

Works for me -- it'll show up as "1 hour" in the preference pane, while 14400 will be "4 hours". You need to consider that the selection in System Preferences uses hard-coded selection values, and always uses the next higher value: 61 seconds will show as 5 minutes.