diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 0d4143a..bf81caf 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Django Ping
 ===========
 
-Django Ping is utility that provides a lightweight endpoint for availability and uptime monitoring services. It 
+Django Ping is utility that provides a lightweight endpoint for availability and uptime monitoring services. It
 also provides hooks for testing stack components and reporting them via JSON.
 
 Current Version: 0.3.0
@@ -25,12 +25,12 @@ Hitting the endpoint returns a simple status 200 response.
 You can customize the message by adding to your Django settings::
 
     PING_DEFAULT_RESPONSE = "All systems go!"
-    PING_DEFAULT_MIMETYPE = 'text/html'
+    PING_DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE = 'text/html'
 
 Hitting the url::
 
     /ping
-    
+
 displays::
 
     All systems go!
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ a series of status checks and reports the results.
 For example::
 
     /ping?checks=true
-    
+
 displays::
 
     Your site is up!
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ Specifying a ``fmt`` parameter to ``json`` returns more detailed and serialized
 For example::
 
     /ping?fmt=json
-    
+
 displays::
 
     {
diff --git a/ping/checks.py b/ping/checks.py
index 85e0f55..41f6231 100644
--- a/ping/checks.py
+++ b/ping/checks.py
@@ -2,7 +2,13 @@
 from django.utils.importlib import import_module
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 
-from ping.defaults import *
+from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
+
+from ping.defaults import PING_DEFAULT_CHECKS, PING_CELERY_TIMEOUT
+
+
+AUTH_USER_MODEL = getattr(settings, "AUTH_USER_MODEL", "auth.User")
+
 
 def checks(request):
     """
@@ -11,7 +17,7 @@ def checks(request):
     for that check.
     """
     response_dict = {}
-    
+
     #Taken straight from Django
     #If there is a better way, I don't know it
     for path in getattr(settings, 'PING_CHECKS', PING_DEFAULT_CHECKS):
@@ -25,7 +31,7 @@ def checks(request):
                 func = getattr(mod, attr)
             except AttributeError:
                 raise ImproperlyConfigured('Module "%s" does not define a "%s" callable' % (module, attr))
-            
+
             key, value = func(request)
             response_dict[key] = value
 
@@ -33,7 +39,7 @@ def checks(request):
 
 #DEFAULT SYSTEM CHECKS
 
-#Database    
+#Database
 def check_database_sessions(request):
     from django.contrib.sessions.models import Session
     try:
@@ -55,7 +61,7 @@ def check_database_sites(request):
 CACHE_KEY = 'django-ping-test'
 CACHE_VALUE = 'abc123'
 
-def check_cache_set(request):        
+def check_cache_set(request):
     from django.core.cache import cache
     try:
         cache.set(CACHE_KEY, CACHE_VALUE, 30)
@@ -63,7 +69,7 @@ def check_cache_set(request):
     except:
         return 'cache_set', False
 
-def check_cache_get(request):        
+def check_cache_get(request):
     from django.core.cache import cache
     try:
         data = cache.get(CACHE_KEY)
@@ -75,12 +81,11 @@ def check_cache_get(request):
         return 'cache_get', False
 
 
-#User
-def check_user_exists(request):        
-    from django.contrib.auth.models import User
+# User
+def check_user_exists(request):
     try:
         username = request.GET.get('username')
-        u = User.objects.get(username=username)
+        get_user_model().objects.get(username=username)
         return 'user_exists', True
     except:
         return 'user_exists', False
@@ -95,7 +100,7 @@ def check_celery(request):
     now = time()
     datetimenow = datetime.now()
     expires = datetimenow + timedelta(seconds=getattr(settings, 'PING_CELERY_TIMEOUT', PING_CELERY_TIMEOUT))
-    
+
     try:
         task = sample_task.apply_async(expires=expires)
         while expires > datetime.now():
diff --git a/ping/defaults.py b/ping/defaults.py
index 9f9a23f..c8e9fa0 100644
--- a/ping/defaults.py
+++ b/ping/defaults.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 PING_DEFAULT_RESPONSE = "Your site is up!"
-PING_DEFAULT_MIMETYPE = 'text/html'
+PING_DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE = 'text/html'
 
 PING_DEFAULT_CHECKS = (
     'ping.checks.check_database_sessions',
@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@
 
 PING_BASIC_AUTH = False
 
-PING_CELERY_TIMEOUT = 5
\ No newline at end of file
+PING_CELERY_TIMEOUT = 5
diff --git a/ping/urls.py b/ping/urls.py
index 78d7c37..6ce8ff8 100644
--- a/ping/urls.py
+++ b/ping/urls.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from django.conf.urls.defaults import patterns, include, url
+from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
 from ping.views import status
 
 urlpatterns = patterns('',
diff --git a/ping/views.py b/ping/views.py
index 82cacd4..d46110d 100644
--- a/ping/views.py
+++ b/ping/views.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
+import json
+
 from django.http import HttpResponse
 from django.conf import settings
-from django.utils import simplejson
 from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
 from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt
 
@@ -14,10 +15,10 @@ def status(request):
     """
     Returns a simple HttpResponse
     """
-        
+
     response = "<h1>%s</h1>" % getattr(settings, 'PING_DEFAULT_RESPONSE', PING_DEFAULT_RESPONSE)
-    mimetype = getattr(settings, 'PING_DEFAULT_MIMETYPE', PING_DEFAULT_MIMETYPE)
-    
+    content_type = getattr(settings, 'PING_DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE', PING_DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE)
+
     if request.GET.get('checks') == 'true':
         response_dict = checks(request)
         response += "<dl>"
@@ -28,11 +29,11 @@ def status(request):
 
     if request.GET.get('fmt') == 'json':
         try:
-            response = simplejson.dumps(response_dict)
+            response = json.dumps(response_dict)
         except UnboundLocalError:
             response_dict = checks(request)
             response = simplejson.dumps(response_dict)
         response = simplejson.dumps(response_dict, sort_keys=True)
-        mimetype = 'application/json'  
+        content_type = 'application/json'
 
-    return HttpResponse(response, mimetype=mimetype, status=200)
\ No newline at end of file
+    return HttpResponse(response, content_type=content_type, status=200)