If you install python in a directory whose path contains a colon sys.path 
will be wrong, the installation directory will be split into two strings and 
both of them are added to sys.path.

The following session demonstrates the problem:

bump:~/src/python/:colon bob$ ./python.exe -c "import sys; print 
sys.path"
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
['', '/usr/local/lib/python25.zip', '/Users/bob/src/python/', 'colon/../
Lib/', '/Users/bob/src/python/', 'colon/../Lib/plat-darwin', '/Users/bob/
src/python/', 'colon/../Lib/plat-mac', '/Users/bob/src/python/', 'colon/../
Lib/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages', '/Users/bob/src/python/', 'colon/../
Lib/lib-tk', '/Users/bob/src/python/', 'colon/Modules']