OS X screen saver - somewhat off topic

[Brian Yennie]

I dunno if this will help, but here was an old trick floating around  
for playing the screen saver on your desktop:

 From terminal:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ 
ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &

I suppose there might be other options, perhaps a "stop" or "quit"  
command or the like, although none of it appears to be documented...

> Sorry, it doesn't work if the screen saver has come on after it's time  
> setting. In fact it is exactly the same as the AppleScript. You can  
> see it happening as the screens saver goes off for about half a  
> second, then comes straight back on again :-( Most frustrating as it  
> seems that it is ALMOST working.
>
> Thanks for all your help anyway,
> Sarah