how to resize physical android screen from terminal/shell
An update to this answer for Jelly Bean 4.3 from Android dev Adam Powell on Google+ (link found via this SO answer):
In Android 4.3 these options moved from the "am" command (ActivityManager) to the "wm" command (WindowManager). Type "adb shell wm" for details.
So you can now run on 4.3 devices:
adb shell wm size 1280x800
or whatever size or reset
and
adb shell wm density 480
or whatever density or reset
Just make sure the screen is not currently displaying at the moment you run the command.