jPod and 56k floppies -- by Eugene Reimer, 2007-April27

I'm reading JPod by Douglas Coupland, and wondering what a 56k floppy might have been.  I've been a computer-programmer since before floppies and can't recall any such size.  The Wikipedia article on floppies (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk) mentions the sizes I remember plus a few I don't, but no 56k size. 

Googling for 56k floppy does reveal a post by another professed old-timer who says "I used to code artificial intelligence on 2K of ram and a 56K floppy disk" (see the Aug 22, 2001 1:32AM entry in forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=158666&messageID=481086 (a copy of)).  That post predates JPod in case you're wondering which may have influenced which. 

[I considered adding these observations to: amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/... but Amazon only lets customers post, and does not regard me as a customer.]

[2010-11-25: that Sun.Com webpage is now being redirected to something entirely inappropriate, however I've put up a copy of what that webpage used to contain.]