diff --git a/python/examples/wordcount.py b/python/examples/wordcount.py
index a6de22766ab1451759ea94439da931d412e14bd2..b9139b9d765203dce45fb01cdbad1036b0918be8 100755
--- a/python/examples/wordcount.py
+++ b/python/examples/wordcount.py
@@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
                   .reduceByKey(add)
     output = counts.collect()
     for (word, count) in output:
-        print "%s : %i" % (word, count)
+        print "%s: %i" % (word, count)
diff --git a/python/pyspark/shell.py b/python/pyspark/shell.py
index 9b4b4e78cb7276e939c5e31dcafc930fbd98b136..54823f80378787ff5c73c78f6b8ab8d336d52975 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/shell.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/shell.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ An interactive shell.
 This file is designed to be launched as a PYTHONSTARTUP script.
 """
 import os
+import platform
 import pyspark
 from pyspark.context import SparkContext
 
@@ -28,6 +29,18 @@ from pyspark.context import SparkContext
 add_files = os.environ.get("ADD_FILES").split(',') if os.environ.get("ADD_FILES") != None else None
 
 sc = SparkContext(os.environ.get("MASTER", "local"), "PySparkShell", pyFiles=add_files)
+
+print """Welcome to
+      ____              __
+     / __/__  ___ _____/ /__
+    _\ \/ _ \/ _ `/ __/  '_/
+   /__ / .__/\_,_/_/ /_/\_\   version 0.8.0
+      /_/
+"""
+print "Using Python version %s (%s, %s)" % (
+    platform.python_version(),
+    platform.python_build()[0],
+    platform.python_build()[1])
 print "Spark context avaiable as sc."
 
 if add_files != None: