"The connection to the Exchange server has been lost."
I am heartbroken.

"The connection to the Exchange server has been restored."
uh.. OK thanks... should I feel better now?

Up, down, back and forth... each time a new notification balloon appears above the system tray icon for Outlook. Since I positioned my command window just above the system tray, these little things cover the text I am trying to type... OK, I get that there are some problems with connectivity to my Exchange 14 dogfood server... FINE. I accepted that risk when I agreed to sign up for dogfood. The on and off again notifications are KILLING ME though and interrupting my work on the command line...

I have found a way to turn these off!
First for some flavorful keywords so your favorite search engine picks up this article...

outlook 2007 notification balloon system tray icon exchange server connection lost restored
also outlook 2003 in case you haven't joined the last half of this decade yet.

In the registry there are some keys to create that will disable these notification balloons for this specific problem of connectivity to the Exchange server.

Open registry editor and find this path:

2007: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0
2003: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0

under this path, find this sub key:
\Outlook\Display Types\Balloons

there, create three DWORD values:
Exchange: DWORD (0)
NetConn: DWORD (0)
NetWarn: DWORD (0)

that's it! restart Outlook and you're FREE from the nuisance of notifications!
there are other notifications you can turn off as well, perhaps someday I will research them and post the list (don't hold your breath.)

Peace!