title: Django DB Settings 'Improperly Configured' Error
body: <p>Django (1.5) is workin' fine for me, but when I fire up the Python interpreter (Python 3) to check some things, I get the weirdest error when I try importing - <code>from django.contrib.auth.models import User</code> - </p>
  
  <pre><code>Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 36, in _setup
      settings_module = os.environ[ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE]
    File "/usr/lib/python3.2/os.py", line 450, in __getitem__
      value = self._data[self.encodekey(key)]
  KeyError: b'DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'
  
  During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
  
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "&lt;stdin&gt;", line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
    File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/contrib/auth/models.py", line 8, in &lt;module&gt;
      from django.db import models
    File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 11, in &lt;module&gt;
      if settings.DATABASES and DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS not in settings.DATABASES:
    File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 52, in __getattr__
      self._setup(name)
    File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 45, in _setup
      % (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))
  
  django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting DATABASES, 
    but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment 
    variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() 
    before accessing settings.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How could it be improperly configured, when it works fine outside the Python interpreter? In my Django settings, the <code>DATABASES</code> settings are:</p>
  
  <pre><code>DATABASES = {
      'default': {
          'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2', # Add 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'mysql', 'sqlite3' or 'oracle'.
          'NAME': 'django_db', # Or path to database file if using sqlite3.
          # The following settings are not used with sqlite3:
          'USER': 'zamphatta',
          'PASSWORD': 'mypassword91',
          'HOST': '', # Empty for localhost through domain sockets or '127.0.0.1' for localhost through TCP.
          'PORT': '', # Set to empty string for default.
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>...how is this improperly configured?</p>