[archena]

I'd include combinatorics under 'useful' too - although the basics are usually covered in statistics courses. Odd that the list mentions differential equations but not basic calculus, which I'd think is more fundamental.

It's also interesting to consider the chapter headings in Concrete Mathematics (Graham, Knuth, Patashnik), a text designed with students of CS and programming in mind:

    Recurrent Problems
    Summation
    Integer Functions
    Number Theory
    Binomial Coefficients
    Special Numbers
    Generating Functions
    Discrete Probability
    Asymptotics

[bainsfather]

I got Concrete Mathematics a few days ago, after someone recommended it. My background is physics, and I find the "mathematicians' style" to be very awkward to learn from. This book is excellent for me - concrete examples - it is always trying to solve specific problems, so if I don't follow the theory, I can always refer to a concrete example and try to understand that specific case. This the way I learn best/fastest.