user cgi-bin configuration

[ulrike@example.com]

I am running debian if this is of any relevance and tried to install cgi-bin
directories for users, but am not quite sure whether I understood the Apache FAQ
correctly, it says:

2.Place the cgi-bin directory underneath the public_html directory: 

              <Directory /home/*/public_html/cgi-bin>
                  Options ExecCGI
                  SetHandler cgi-script
              </Directory> 

So I put this text at the very bottom of access.conf. But when I tried to access
the script I got: "You don't have permission to access /~uli/cgi-bin/wwwkan.pl
on this server."

The error.log says:
[Thu Sep  7 13:35:53 2000] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] Options ExecCGI is off in
this directory: /home/uli/public_html/cgi-bin/wwwkan.pl

I did restart the server, I have to admit by rebooting, since
"kill -TERM `cat /usr/local/apache/logs/httpd.pid`" does not work, I cannot
locate httpd.pid. 

So what do I have to think about "Options ExecCGI is off", and how do I restart
apache properly (this is this neccessary/the correct way to get it to know that
I changed the *.conf files, isn't it?)

Uli