Model is nearly unidentifiable with glmer

http://ligarto.org/rdiaz/nearly-unidentifiable.tar.gz

a small (230 KB) file with:

- data
- R code to show the problem
- two runs of that code on different machines

I don't seem to get those warnings when I run your "f02" ("very large 
eigenvalue") problem here - get the same parameter estimates (x86_64, 
lme4_1.0-6, Matrix_1.1-0).  The estimated RE variance is very small.

Your cut-down "singularity" example gives a variance for dataSetID with a 
starting value for theta, eg glmer(nS ~ Method + (1|dataSetID), 
family=poisson, data = d2, start=0.01) - again v. small.


| David Duffy (MBBS PhD)
| email: David.Duffy at qimrberghofer.edu.au  ph: INT+61+7+3362-0217 fax: -0101
| Genetic Epidemiology, QIMR Berghofer Institute of Medical Research
| 300 Herston Rd, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia  GPG 4D0B994A