You shouldn't need to run as root to check your own prefs, should you? (i.e. no need for 'sudo' in the first case).
Cool tip though - there's always stuff I didn't know about turning up in this crazy little OS. Anyone heard of the 'sips' command? Cool stuff, like a lightweight imagemagick, and the syntax doesn't even make you want to barf (unlike imagemagick in that respect)