Later, she absentmindedly emptied the contents of that purse into the collection cup of Billy Ray Harris, who is homeless and often stays under a bridge in Darling's hometown.

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"If we had not had that group of people with the vision to put this thing together and we tried to do it today, I think it would be damn near impossible, " said Jimmy Ray, director of Harris County's Justice Information Management System (JIMS).

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Harris points to the move by Blockbuster to expand its Blu-Ray offerings last year as one key point.

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Another worry, according to Robin Harris, an analyst with the Data Mobility Group, is that Blu-Ray adoption will be slow because few people will notice the difference between formats, since many players can neatly "up-convert" DVDs for high-definition sets.

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