large dataset - lmer2 vector size specified is too large

Douglas Bates <bates at ...> writes:
...

but even that formula means that you are estimating 448 fixed effects
for which the model matrix is of size 448 * 43680 * 8 bytes (about 150
MB).  In addition you are attempting to estimate

Not directly related. Is it really necessary to build model matrix i.e. X. 
Building X'X directly would be more efficient i.e. only 448 * 448 * 8 bytes.

Gregor