Hi Seth,
I'm running OSX and was having the same problem with configuring the .htaccess file.
The problem is in the httpd.conf file. Default setting for AllowOverride for .htaccess files is None. It needs to be set to All. Here's the fix.
Open httpd.conf file. Find the follow lines:
#
# This controls which options the .htaccess files in directories can
# override. Can also be "All", or any combination of "Options", "FileInfo",
# "AuthConfig", and "Limit"
#
AllowOverride None
and replace with:
#
# This controls which options the .htaccess files in directories can
# override. Can also be "All", or any combination of "Options", "FileInfo",
# "AuthConfig", and "Limit"
#
AllowOverride All
Make sure you restart the server for the changes to take effect. Good Luck.