.htaccess for linux home directories

.htaccess for linux home directories

The error in browser I get is:
The requested URL /home/user/public_html/some_folder was not found on this
server.
And the apache log is:
[Sat Aug 17 20:57:57 2013] [error] [client ] File does not exist:
/var/www/html/home
So naturally I think, I'll try RewriteBase
/../../../home/user/public_html/, but that gives me:
[Sat Aug 17 20:59:22 2013] [error] [client ] Invalid URI in request GET
/~user/ HTTP/1.1
How do I get around this?
The .htaccess is simple:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /../../../home/user/public_html/
RewriteRule index.php some_folder/index.html [L]