I remember wondering why anyone called them 1.44MB. I could understand 1.38MB, and I could understand 1.457664MB, but where in hell did 1.44MB come from?

Now I realize that they mixed 2^10 and 10^3 in the same sentence. Thanks for finally answering a question that's been in the back of my brain for 20+ years!

What they really meant was "2880 512-byte sectors". :-)