Anyone in canberra may already know about this, but for those who don't this message is for them.
Yesterday while Myself and Meatex were applying for our cert II in 3d animation, we decided to go and check out Bazookie Games. They have an online ordering system and allow AIE students to order software and hardware and get a discount on the price. How sweet is that.
(They also try and get the cheapest price to anyone. Check out the site (I think it's www.bazookiegames.com.au , but if it's not search on g00gle or elg00g))
Check out elgoog if you want (Google mirror fummyness )www.alltooflat.com/geeky/elgoog/
The universe is big so don't complain
At our uni we can get development stuff like Visual C++ .Net Professional for about $200 AU. Which is like 10% of the full price of it, which is good. I think they said that they could get 3DS Max for about $700 or so though, so that's not that great a deal, but still.
I think you'll find that most academic institutions offer large discounts to students.