Letter to grandmother explaining EAs
(PDF-written as a class assignment)

I figured this out by foraging through several forums etc. Hope it saves you some trouble.
OS: Ubuntu 9.10

Use python>=2.4 to be safe (I used 2.6)
Install python-dev eg. python2.6-dev
Install numpy, csh
Use compatible gcc 4.3 for matlab 2009a (Check MATLAB docs for your version)

Download mlabwrap
Set environment variables in the setup.py file
Build and install
export  MLABRAW_CMD_STR=<your path to>/bin/matlab

All you need to do now is import and use!
e.g.
from mlabwrap import *
mlab.plot([1,2,3],'-o')

Go back home