Synaptic popup window

[Joshua Swink]

So I'm doing an update on this Breezy Colony 3 system and a window pops up:

http://nodens.ath.cx/annoying_window.png

It looks similar to the annoying windows that pop out of the tray in Windows XP
when, for example, it detects a new wireless network nearby or feels lonely.

Is this a new development? How can I turn this thing off forever? Is
there a global
configuration option to forbid such windows from coming out of the panel?
There ought to be.

Josh