Hi Thomas,
Please refer note 2184030 for increasing remote object size limit.
As per my understanding ,SP10 doesn't support column views as a source object for virtual tables, The note 2154347 and 2171760 holds the details. I think the feature brought back again as part of SP11.
In the thread you have mentioned, you could generate a virtual table using calcview, what's the version of that system?
Hope it helps.
Thanks,
Jino.